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Indian Prime Minister completes landmark Israel visit

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India’s Prime Minister visited the graves of Indian soldiers and took a helicopter tour of Israel’s borders on the final day of his visit.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew from Jerusalem to Haifa on Thursday morning, where they visited a British military cemetery where Indian soldiers killed in the First World War are buried. They unveiled a plaque in memory of the Indian soldiers who fell in the battle to liberate Haifa.

Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote in the guestbook, expressing his “deepest respect” for “the brave soldiers of India who helped liberate our land”.  Prime Minister Modi wrote: “I am deeply honoured to stand here today to salute the valiant Indian soldiers, who laid down their lives for the liberation of Haifa in the First World War…next year, the centenary of the Battle of Haifa will present another opportunity to mark this enduring bond between India and Israel. Jai Hindi.”

Later in the day the two leaders cemented their friendship with a barefoot paddle in the sea as part of a visit to Olga Beach in Haifa where they drove in a Galmobile desalinisation unit – a small truck capable of supplying drinking water for 22,000 people per day. They drank a toast of water that had been desalinated on the spot.

The Prime Ministers met with CEOs of Israeli and Indian companies to launch an Israeli-Indian CEOs’ forum chaired by Manufacturers Association President Shraga Brosh.

At the event, Netanyahu said that “Israel is the ‘innovation nation,’ so is India.  Together we have tremendous potential, potential not only in markets but in creating new possibilities, new opportunities. We just saw this in crop protection or in water, the cleaning of water.”

The two leaders also launched a bilateral innovation challenge calling on Israeli and Indian startups to work together to develop solutions to some of the world’s most critical challenges in agriculture, water and digital health. The challenge will be hosted on the new India-Israel Innovation Bridge, an online platform to facilitate bilateral collaboration between Israeli and Indian startups, techhubs, corporations and other key innovation ecosystem players.