Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held delegation level talks with his Israeli counterpart and “friend” Benjamin Netanyahu, officials said.
Netanyahu met Modi at Hyderabad House and held delegation level talks to pave way for various projects related to cooperation in innovation, technology transfer, defence supplies, and economic relations.
The visiting Israeli PM began his official engagements by being formally welcomed by President Ram Nath Kovind and inspecting a guard of honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
He then headed to Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Raj Ghat and laid a wreath at the memorial.
Breaking protocol, Modi on Sunday personally received Netanyahu with a warm hug as he arrived here on a six-day visit to step up growing trade as well as military and strategic ties between the two countries.
The visit, which marks 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, comes six months after Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the Jewish state in July last year.
In a sign of growing importance to the ties with Israel, the government on Sunday renamed Delhi’s Teen Murti Chowk as Teen Murti-Haifa Chowk after the Israeli city.
Netanyahu’s entourage includes the largest-ever delegation of Israeli business people of some 130.
This is the first visit to India by an Israeli Prime Minister since Ariel Sharon came in 2003.