Israeli foreign minister to visit India next week

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar will visit India next week to meet with the countrys top leadership and discuss bilateral initiatives and regional developmentsSaar will be on a twoday visit to New Delhi November 4 and 5 and will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar among others a source in Israel told PTIDespite the turmoil in the region there have been several highprofile visits from Israel to India over the past two years with recent ones including those of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich Minister of Economy Nir Barkat Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter and Tourism Minister Haim KatzIndia and Israel signed a Bilateral Investment Treaty BIT during the visit of Finance Minister Smotrich in September to deepen economic and financial ties and to assure investors from both sides of appropriate safeguards in light of relevant international precedents and practicesThe agreement increases the comfort level and boosts the confidence of investors by assuring a minimum standard of treatment and nondiscrimination while providing for an independent forum for dispute settlement through arbitrationThe BIT also provides for protection to investments from expropriation transparency transfers and compensation for lossesIsrael has signed BITs with over 15 countries since 2000 including the UAE Japan the Philippines Thailand South Africa etcBarkat visited India in February with a large economic delegationIsrael has also been seeking Indias help in overcoming an acute shortage of workers in various sectors The number of Indians now working in Israel is estimated at close to 40000Several thousand more are expected to join the Israeli workforce in the coming monthsJaishankar and Saar earlier met in February on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference and discussed US President Donald Trumps vision of connecting Asia Europe and the United States through IsraelThe two leaders also addressed the challenges posed by attacks on trade routes by Yemens Houthis and IranIt is noteworthy that during the G20 summit in 2023 a project to link infrastructure from India to Europe connecting Asia through the Middle East to Europe was announced that was described by the Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the largest cooperation project in our history that will change the face of the Middle East Israel and will affect the entire worldTrump had later expressed interest in enlarging the scope of the project taking it right up to the United StatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever