Bengaluru: “The upcoming visit of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be considered the report card of the past 25 years of the Indo-Israel international relations and will also be a gateway to more initiatives to strengthen the relations,” said Ambassador of Israel to India Daniel Carmon.
In a chat with Deccan Chronicle the Ambassador also threw light on how agricultural centres placed in India would help improve lives and the “very special and unique relationship”.
Carmon sees a huge potential in the combined efforts of the nations in the next 25 years. He continued that innovative developments in various disciplines including science and technology, agriculture and water technologies would be given importance among others.
Regarding the recent visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel and the upcoming Netanyahu ‘s visit, the envoy asserted, “These visits are of immense importance as they concentrate our efforts and make way for all of us (governments, industry, academia, finance, innovators) who look forward to the wonderful journey of India-Israel relations.”
Elaborating on the importance of implementing developmental plans proposed by the nations, the envoy said, “The centres of excellence set up across different states in India, including Karnataka, benefit thousands of farmers with technological advancements, extension services, demonstration and training sessions playing key roles to build self-sustainability.”
According to the Ambassador, as many as 16 fully-operational horticultural centres are now present in India. “As the nations are celebrating 25 years of bilateral diplomatic relations, we are now planning to raise this number to 25. An exclusive centre for beekeeping is ready at Haryana and will be inaugurated next Friday. Another centre exclusively for dairy farming is also in the pipeline,” Carmon said.
Academic ties to improve
The newly launched Centre at IIMB, he says, would serve as a beacon to others providing them a model to follow to set up more meeting places (both physical and virtual) for various stakeholders for the nation to interact and thereby grow.
“Such engagements will contribute to the communities, peoples, and thereby our countries to improve and develop even more. Similar opportunities act as magnets to bring in stakeholders across strata to improve the important fabric of the bilateral relations Israel holds with India,” he said.
Throwing light to the role played by the aspect of academia in the bilateral relationship of the nations, Carmon said that more varsities from both the nations have come forward in recent times to offer studentship, professorship and research opportunities.
“More research papers being written, more scholars building relations and allocating more research grants along with getting in more students in the fields of cyber technology, mathematics, engineering and agriculture needs to be strengthened in the next 25 years,” he concluded.
With both India and Israel bringing their comparative strengths to the table, the envoy asserted, “A people-to-people, community-to-community, ecosystem-to-ecosystem partnership is what we have been following and will be followed more strongly in future as well.”
