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 Israel, although it extended it recognition in 1948.

India established diplomatic relations with Israel only in 1992, and since then, India-Israeli defense and counterterrorism cooperation has expanded. Yet India continued to call out Israeli expansionism and oppression of the Palestinians. Meanwhile, India was also doing a careful balancing act, navigating West Asia’s other fault lines and rivalries. Its economic relations with the oil-rich Sunni Gulf states and Shia Iran grew, despite robust defense ties with Israel.

However, as India grew ever closer to the U.S., its foreign policy positions on key issues involving West Asian countries began to change. In September 2005, for example, India, then under a Congress-led government, voted with the Western bloc in the IAEA against Iran’s nuclear program; the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal was being negotiated at that time.

The pro-Israel/U.S. tilt became more pronounced after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India in 2014. Drawing attention to the change in how India voted on Israel-Palestine issues between 2014 and 2023, Nicolas Blarel, an expert on India-Israel relations, told me in a November 2023 interview that “India has moved from systematically voting in support of Palestine in multilateral settings like the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to hedging between supporting Palestine, abstaining on some votes condemning Israel explicitly and not the actions of terrorist groups like Hamas, and to sometimes voting, albeit rarely, in support of Israel when the votes were specifically about condemning terrorist outfits.”

This “hedging has continued during the latest Israeli war on Gaza,” the retired diplomat said.

Indeed, India has supported resolutions condemning Israel’s settlement expansion, even as it has sometimes abstained — even voted against — UNGA resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

Indian foreign policy watchers say that India has moved closer to Israel.

Journalist Bharat Bhushan wrote in Deccan Herald that with the recent visit, Modi has put India “firmly in the U.S.-Israeli camp.”

That is not a space that India should be in if it is hoping to lead the Global South, especially in the context of Israel’s continuing war on Gaza and the latest Israel-U.S. military strikes on Iran.

In its first statement since the start of the Israel-U.S. war, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it was “deeply concerned at the recent developments in Iran and the Gulf region.” It called on “all sides to exercise restraint, avoid escalation, and prioritize the safety of civilians,” stressing that “dialogue and diplomacy should be pursued to de-escalate tensions and address underlying issues.”

There was no condemnation, or even mention, of the Israeli-U.S. military strikes, which brought an end to the ongoing dialogue with Iran.

New Delhi has yet to comment on the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Israeli-U.S. strikes or even on their bombing of an elementary school in southern Iran that left 165 people, many of them children, dead.

Modi and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar have reportedly spoken to leaders of several Gulf countries, which have suffered from Iran’s retaliatory strikes, and where India has economic stakes as well as a large expatriate population.

In a call to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on Sunday, Modi said he “strongly condemned the attacks on the UAE and condoled the loss of lives in these attacks.” Although the Indian prime minister did not name Iran, the UAE has faced a barrage of missile and drone strikes from Iran since the start of the war.

This is the first and so far only official condemnation by India of any side in the rapidly escalating West Asian crises.

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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 Israel, although it extended it recognition in 1948.

India established diplomatic relations with Israel only in 1992, and since then, India-Israeli defense and counterterrorism cooperation has expanded. Yet India continued to call out Israeli expansionism and oppression of the Palestinians. Meanwhile, India was also doing a careful balancing act, navigating West Asia’s other fault lines and rivalries. Its economic relations with the oil-rich Sunni Gulf states and Shia Iran grew, despite robust defense ties with Israel.

However, as India grew ever closer to the U.S., its foreign policy positions on key issues involving West Asian countries began to change. In September 2005, for example, India, then under a Congress-led government, voted with the Western bloc in the IAEA against Iran’s nuclear program; the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal was being negotiated at that time.

The pro-Israel/U.S. tilt became more pronounced after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India in 2014. Drawing attention to the change in how India voted on Israel-Palestine issues between 2014 and 2023, Nicolas Blarel, an expert on India-Israel relations, told me in a November 2023 interview that “India has moved from systematically voting in support of Palestine in multilateral settings like the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to hedging between supporting Palestine, abstaining on some votes condemning Israel explicitly and not the actions of terrorist groups like Hamas, and to sometimes voting, albeit rarely, in support of Israel when the votes were specifically about condemning terrorist outfits.”

This “hedging has continued during the latest Israeli war on Gaza,” the retired diplomat said.

Indeed, India has supported resolutions condemning Israel’s settlement expansion, even as it has sometimes abstained — even voted against — UNGA resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

Indian foreign policy watchers say that India has moved closer to Israel.

Journalist Bharat Bhushan wrote in Deccan Herald that with the recent visit, Modi has put India “firmly in the U.S.-Israeli camp.”

That is not a space that India should be in if it is hoping to lead the Global South, especially in the context of Israel’s continuing war on Gaza and the latest Israel-U.S. military strikes on Iran.

In its first statement since the start of the Israel-U.S. war, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it was “deeply concerned at the recent developments in Iran and the Gulf region.” It called on “all sides to exercise restraint, avoid escalation, and prioritize the safety of civilians,” stressing that “dialogue and diplomacy should be pursued to de-escalate tensions and address underlying issues.”

There was no condemnation, or even mention, of the Israeli-U.S. military strikes, which brought an end to the ongoing dialogue with Iran.

New Delhi has yet to comment on the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Israeli-U.S. strikes or even on their bombing of an elementary school in southern Iran that left 165 people, many of them children, dead.

Modi and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar have reportedly spoken to leaders of several Gulf countries, which have suffered from Iran’s retaliatory strikes, and where India has economic stakes as well as a large expatriate population.

In a call to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on Sunday, Modi said he “strongly condemned the attacks on the UAE and condoled the loss of lives in these attacks.” Although the Indian prime minister did not name Iran, the UAE has faced a barrage of missile and drone strikes from Iran since the start of the war.

This is the first and so far only official condemnation by India of any side in the rapidly escalating West Asian crises.

Sudha Ramachandran is South Asia editor at The Diplomat.

U.S.-Israel war on Iran

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