Indian Defence Review

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Tel Aviv, Israel

A significant boos to Indo-Israeli ties, the recent government clearance of Rupees 80,000 crore worth defence projects included Import of 8,356 anti-tank guided missile from Israel worth Rs 3,200 crore. Earlier, the Indian Military has been importing defence equipment from Israel and there have are also ongoing joint development projects. Imports have included UAVs, radars, AWACS, artillery ammunition and Tavor assault rifles.  Artillery Command, Control and Communication System (ACCS), the only operational information system fully fielded by the Indian Army is over 90 percent Israeli.

At a recent international seminar on Digitization of the Battlefield at FICCI House in the Capital, a veteran Israeli Defence Forces officer showed clips of live conflict with Hamas during 2009 and 2014; the battlefield management system accurately targeting radical movement including blasting tunnel openings catching individuals in the act of disappearing underground – something that India needs. Our Home Minister is currently on an official visit to Israel, even as relations between Israel and the United States seem to have reached a new low because of derogatory remarks by Obama administration officials targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel albeit such hiccup can hardly affect the strong Israel-US relationship..

Among all the meetings with Heads of States abroad by Prime Minister Modi during his visit to the US, the least media coverage perhaps was his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu – a hangover from the UPA era, same way as the Indo-Taiwan relationship is kept under wraps for fear of China despite latter’s blatant arming and nuclear proliferation of Pakistan against India. That the UPA kowtowing to Pakistan and IOC actually amounted to distrusting the nationalism and loyalty of Indian Muslims to India was never really understood by the political coterie. India established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. That the OIC rejecting sentiments of Indian Muslims in siding with Pakistan and latter blocking Indian move to join OIC, would have contributed to this decision can hardly be denied.

Indo-Israeli relations have stood the test of times despite India criticizing Israeli military action in Palestinian areas in the past. If the recent pro-Hamas vote by India at UNHCR was a diplomatic slip up, this was corrected by the Indian Foreign Minister at the ministerial meeting of the NAM Committee on Palestine. Concurrently, the Foreign Minister also stated in the Indian Parliament of Israel’s right to defend itself against wanton missile attacks fired by terrorists from across the border. In 2011, a cultural festival to commemorate 20 years of Indo-Israel diplomatic relations was held in Israel with large Indian participation.

Not many would recall that the world’s first Jewish-Hindu interfaith leadership summit was held in India in February 2007. More significantly, in August 2007, a delegation of the All India Organization of Imams and Mosques led by Maulana Jamil Ilyas visited Israel. The Israel visit followed a trip by Jewish Rabbis to Delhi for an inter-faith meeting. Interfaith meetings thereafter have been periodic. Some 40,000 Israeli tourists, mostly youth, visit India annually. Many visit Kulu-Manali, Dharamsala,  Kashmir Valley and Ladakh, including the twin villages of Ladakh inhabited by Brokpas – known as the lost tribe of Alexander. Leh has Israeli restaurants. Conversely, 40,000 Indians visited Israel in 2011, double the number from 2009. India is the largest customer of Israeli military equipment and India is also the second largest Asian partner of Israel with bilateral trade standing at US$ 6 billion.

Military and strategic ties between the two countries include joint military training and space technology. Media has been reporting India-Israel Barak SAM development projects and that the newly commissioned INS Kolkatta will be equipped with the Barak-8. Cooperation and joint research is also reportedly being undertaken in fields of IT, nano-technology, bio-technology, agriculture and water technology In fact just before the Modi-Netanyahu meeting in New York, Indian Navy purchase of advanced Israeli missiles from Israeli defence company Rafael at cost of US$143 million had been signed. Drive from Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea and you come across a thick forest amidst desert expanding over the years with drip irrigation – something India needs with growing water scarcity. An Israeli Center of Excellence (COE) for vegetables, inaugurated at Gharunda, Karnal (Haryana) in 17 January 2011 is running very successfully and is being replicated in nine other states including Gujarat for growing mangoes in Gir area of Gujarat.

The Modi-Netanyahu meeting on the sidelines of the Prime Minister Modi’s address at UNGA in late September, first between Prime Ministers of India and Israel, needs to be seen in the context of the dynamic geopolitical situation in West Asia, Middle East and South Asia and the heightened threat of terrorism faced by both countries. Incidentally, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit India during tenure of Prime Minister AB Vajpayee. Modi had visited Israel as Chief Minister of Gujarat. Significantly, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared in context of relations between India and Israel that “the sky is the limit”. It requires no guesswork that Prime Minister Modi would visit Israel at a future date – that may well be next year.

The fact of the matter is that Israel has always given India the best technology as compared to other countries. The US geared up its homeland security post the 9/11 attacks but Israel had it in place much earlier and in a situation where the demographic mix even in financial city Tel Aviv makes the problem that much more complex. Israel not only has world class cyber security, it is effectively monitoring terrorist networks and communications, countering terrorist ideology speedily identifying terrorist movement and effectively neutralizing them including through armed drones and PGMs. India has much to learn in this sphere.

The relationship between India and Israel is symbiotic; both healthy functional democracies (Israel being the only democracy in Middle East) and both under high terrorist threat. External Affairs Minister has been Chairwoman of the Indo-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group in the past and has visited Israel in that capacity. It is time now to take Indo-Israel relations to the next level by instituting periodic bilateral strategic dialogues (like the Indo-US Defence Planning Group meeting every six months) and similarly, Commerce, Trade and Development groups that can optimize on a speedy road map. With an imploding Pakistan and its continued policy of terrorizing her neighbourhood, the ISIS hydra and Al Qaeda refocusing to South Asia we need foolproof homeland security. More importantly, our strategic void in establishing deterrence to irregular forces in the sub conventional segment needs to be speedily rectified. In both these spheres, there can be no better partner than Israel.

Similarly, with proven prowess in the defence sector, Israel will be a more than willing valuable partner in Prime Minister Modi’s dream of “Make in India, Sell Anywhere” – the route to indigenization through transfer of technology and joint ventures. We need to leapfrog technologies in cyberspace and the electromagnetic domains to plug the asymmetry vis-à-vis our adversaries. Israel has a proven track record in cyber security, border surveillance, water management, agricultural technology, greening of deserts, clean and smart cities and rapid house building that would give every Indian a house – as aimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting between the two Prime Ministers had touched on issues of water and agriculture technology, defence cooperation and cyber security, with PM Netanyahu inviting India to participate in a joint cyber-defence project with Israel.

India needs to gear up its defence, develop capacity to combat asymmetric war effectively concurrent to industrialization, accelerating its economy, optimize on resources and climb the ladder in the human development index in order to let the Indian population enjoy the fruits of democracy in a safe and secure environment. We have to go a long way in countering terrorism that is spreading fast through the social media. Already we are feeling the effects of the ISIS luring youth through the internet. A study conducted at the University of Haifa, a public Research university in Israel in 2012 found that nearly 90 percent of organized terrorism on the internet takes place via social media.  The study revealed that terror groups use social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and internet forums to spread their messages and recruit members and that social media was enabling the terror organizations to take initiatives by making ‘Friend’ requests, uploading video clips, and the like. Israel is well advanced in cyber security and has been actively collaborating with US on the issue.

The bottom line is that India needs foreign investments and foreign technology, which is being enabled through opening up of the defence sector and Cabinet approval for FDI in defence beyond 49 percent for state of the art technology. Indigenous defence industry in conjunction foreign companies has to play a major role since the total estimated defence products required by India are assessed to be to the tune of $ 80 to $ 100 billion annually, since by the end of the 14th Five Year Plan, the cumulative capital expenditures over 2012–27 are projected to exceed $235 billion. Israel can be a reliable and close partner for imports, joint ventures and transfer of technology.

Though strong niche areas of Israeli defence industry are electronics and surveillance, the IDF has tremendous expertise in homeland security, counter terrorism and critical infrastructure protection – all of which India needs. Already Mahindra and Mahindra’s is in joint venture with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd to manufacture wide range of defense equipment including advanced armour solutions. Similarly, Nova Integrated Systems Ltd (NIS – wich is a joint venture of Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and IAI) have been developing   a wide range of defence and aerospace products including missiles, UAVs, radars, EW systems and homeland security systems. Strategic partnership with Israel is a win-win situation for both counties. Time is opportune to take the relationship to the next level.