'There is harmony of interests between India and Israel'

    Though India formally recognised Israel in 1950, New Delhi’s stand on Palestine and its traditional ties with Arab world stopped it from having full diplomatic ties with the Zionist state till early 1990s. However, over a period of time, pragmatism prevailed over moral dilemma and the two countries established official diplomatic relations on Jan 29, 1992. In an interview, ambassador Mark Sofer, Israel’s envoy to India, tells Anirban Bhaumik of Deccan Herald how the relation between the two countries grew in a relatively short period of time and resulted in cooperation in almost all sectors. Excerpts:

    How do you view the India-Israel relation? What are the next milestones the two countries are expected to reach in their efforts to boost bilateral ties?
     Well, in just 18 years, Israel-India relations has seen a huge upturn and become truly multi-faceted. We have made significant progress both in political level interactions, as well as in every sphere of cooperation like trade, investment, defence, science and technology and agriculture. There is now much harmony of interests between India and Israel as the two governments strive for development and welfare of their people. We have a number of projects in the pipeline. We have just launched negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement. Israel has lots of respect for India, not only because we appreciate this great country’s efforts for development with its billion plus population and its success stories in an extremely difficult situation, but also because there has not been any anti-Semitic incident in the long history of Jewish presence in this country.
Could you give us a brief overview of the economic relations between Israel and India?
    Indications are that the Israel-India bilateral trade would triple in the next 3 to 4 years after we sign the FTA. I hope the quantum of bilateral trade would reach somewhere in the region of $12 billion, which was un-dreamt of till recently. Israeli private investment in India is estimated at around $3 to 4 billion and spread over sectors like dairy firms, medical equipment, real estate, and also in IT and high-tech industry in Bangalore. Israel’s high tech industry association recently signed a collaboration agreement with three leading high tech associations of India. It looks very promising.
  How does Israel view India’s response to the Nov 26, 2008, terrorist attacks in Mumbai and other such incidents?
     We stand 100 per cent by the Indian government in its fight against terrorism emanating from outside. The 26/11 is just one example of the atrocities that India and Israel are subjected to. India is a highly responsible country and it knows very well how to deal with the situation and I should not comment on that. There are no two international situations which are identical, certainly not the situations in South Asia and West Asia. But both India and Israel are struggling to achieve peace in their respective neighbourhoods and both believe that peace — in South Asia or West Asia — cannot be achieved through military means and there must be political solutions based on compromise. We completely stand behind India on its position on the issue of Kashmir and on its position vis-à-vis Pakistan. We are completely supportive of India.
    Could you tell us about India-Israel counter-terrorism cooperation as well as ties in sectors like defence, agriculture and science and technology?
   Well, I believe that issues of counter-terrorism and defence cooperation should remain out of the public domain. Agriculture, however, is an area where I can see significant prospects of bilateral cooperation. We are setting up centres of excellence together with our Indian counterparts in Haryana, with focus on horticulture and floriculture. In Rajasthan, we are also cooperating in the field of crop management and proper utilisation of water for agriculture in semi-arid zones. I strongly believe that together we could make the desert bloom. We are cooperating in post-harvest production of mango in Maharashtra, particularly to increase the shelf-life of the fruit and thus augment the income of the farmers. We are now also in Tamil Nadu. We have brought over an agriculture attaché to India and we are planning to augment this office. We are planning to set up a joint mathematics institute somewhere in India. We are also focusing on interactions and collaboration among Israeli and Indian universities, other academic institutes and research centres.
   How does Israel view the situation in the region, particularly the move to reintegrate and reconcile with the so-called good Taliban in Afghanistan?
   Like India, Israel too believes that there cannot be a good Taliban and a bad Taliban, or a good Lashkar-e-Toiba and a bad Lashkar-e-Toiba, or, for that matter, a good Hamas and a bad Hamas. Some of the terrorist organisations try to identify themselves as charities, but we all have seen how charitable they have been, be it in Mumbai or Bangalore or Pune. We, in Israel, believe that the way to move forward is to find the pragmatists to work with to resolve the conflict in West Asia.
   Do you think New Delhi’s stand on Palestine issue continues to be an irritant in the bilateral relations between India and Israel?
    Our relation has matured to such an extent that words like irritant are probably out of place. We talk to each other, we explain to each other. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don’t agree. India has been supportive of the peace process in West Asia. As far as the process to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict is concerned, I think we all agree on what should be the outcome of it — a state of Israel at peace with a state of Palestine free of terror.
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