Flashpoints | Diplomacy | South Asia

Modi Puts India Firmly in the Israel-US Camp

Modi’s strong support for Israel – and refusal to condemn the Israel-U.S. strikes on Iran, a long-time friend of India’s – have “diminished India’s stature in the eyes of the world,”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on his arrival in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 25, 2026.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel on February 25-26 was described by his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu as “extraordinarily productive.” Indeed, there were 27 bilateral outcomes; the two sides announced 16 agreements and 11 joint initiatives, spanning critical and emerging technologies, labor mobility, agriculture, culture and education.

During the visit, India and Israel elevated their current “strategic partnership” to a “special strategic partnership.” Several joint initiatives were announced, including one in the critical and emerging technologies sector that will be led by their national security advisors, and an Indo-Israel Cyber Centre of Excellence to be set up in India. India and Israel reaffirmed their commitment to defense cooperation — a November 2025 memorandum of understanding provides for joint development and joint production of military equipment, with an emphasis on transfer of advanced technology. They announced that the first round of negotiations toward a free trade agreement had concluded successfully in New Delhi, with the next round scheduled for May. Modi told the media that a deal would be finalized “soon.”  The two sides also agreed on facilitating the employment of over 50,000 Indian workers in Israel over the next five years.

Yet, Modi’s visit to Israel has drawn sharp criticism in India and abroad.

His decision to head to Israel, when a Israel-U.S. war on Iran was imminent and his strong words of support for Israel’s actions against Iran, a long-standing friend of India, have “diminished India’s stature in the eyes of the world,” a retired Indian diplomat based in Bangalore told The Diplomat. The timing of the visit — the U.S.-Israel military strikes on Iran began less than 48 hours after Modi left Israel — suggests that “he may have been briefed by the Israeli prime minister on the proposed Israel-U.S. military action,” he claimed.

Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. Yet, this has not prevented Modi from shaking hands, embracing and publicly endorsing the Israeli leader. In his speech at the Knesset, Modi said: “India stands with Israel, firmly, with full conviction, in this moment, and beyond.”

He showed no sympathy for Palestinian suffering. While expressing his “deepest condolences” for the Israeli lives lost in the Hamas’ “barbaric terrorist attack” on October 7, 2023, Modi was conspicuously silent on Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 73,000 Palestinians, many of them children, in the last 2 and a half years.

Accusing Modi of “the highest moral cowardice” for not speaking up on Israel’s war on Gazans, Jairam Ramesh, a senior parliamentarian of the Congress, India’s main opposition party, said: “This Israel visit was shameful and it is even more so in light of the war that has been launched by two of Mr. Modi’s ‘good friends,’” — Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump. “Modi’s embrace of Zionist Israel amidst its relentless genocidal assault on Palestine is a betrayal of India’s anti-colonial legacy,” Ramesh said.

Independent India was a strong supporter of anti-colonial movements and at the forefront of efforts to mobilize support for the Palestinian national cause for decades. It expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and was among the first countries to recognize the state of Palestine in 1988. Careful not to ruffle the feathers of the Muslim world, Delhi did not establish formal diplomatic ties with........

© The Diplomat