India-Israel relations

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

Israeli-Indian trade topped $4 billion in 2009 and, in addition to several other trade and economic agreements between the two countries, negotiations on a free-trade agreement began earlier this year. These were just a couple of the developments about which Mark Sofer, Israeli ambassador to India, spoke during an Israel Project-hosted conference call last month.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of the Israel Project, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., introduced Sofer. He joined the Israeli foreign ministry in 1981, she said, “and has held diplomatic positions in Peru, Norway and New York. He served as ambassador to Ireland from 1999 until 2002 and, in the early 1990s, he served as policy advisor to foreign minister Shimon Peres.”

In his opening remarks, Sofer, who became the ambassador in 2008, said, “the relationship between India and Israel has, in fact, blossomed.” He described the relationship as having “undergone what can only be described as a metamorphosis since 1992, since the establishment of relations.... And since then, what we have seen, I think, is a dynamic relationship, the likes of which is existent between very few, indeed, if at all, two countries in the international arena.”

Responding to a question about India’s openness about its relationship with Israel, Sofer responded that India “has never hidden the fact from the Arab world that it has a strong and friendly and excellent relationship with Israel, on the one hand, and it’s never hidden from us that it has a strong and friendly and excellent relationship with the Arab world, on the other hand. I think it’s a proof that this isn’t a zero-sum game of any form; that you can ... have an excellent relationship with both.”

The ambassador added, “I think on its Middle Eastern policy, we have to make a differentiation, really, between the hype that is sometimes reported and the actual facts on the ground and that the Indian Middle East policy is not that different from the Israeli Middle Eastern policy.

“And it’s not that different, as a matter of fact, from the moderate Arab Middle Eastern policy, in that it supports a two-state solution: Israel living side-by-side with a Palestinian state, with secure borders for Israel, but also for open freedom for the Palestinian people. And it’s never made any secret of that.”

Sofer explained, “I think underlying the basic principle of the Indian-Israeli dynamic since 1992, and certainly before then, is the total and utter lack of anything that could be construed as antisemitism in India.

“The meaning of the word is almost unknown to Hindus, even to the Muslim community here as well, which I should say, immediately and straightaway, is not in any way, shape or form, extreme.”

The Jewish community in India, however, is small, “around a few thousand,” said Sofer. “And we estimate something in the region of 80,000 or so Indian Jews in Israel,” he added, “mainly from the three communities, which are the Bene Israel, the Cochin and what’s called the Baghdadi Jews, who come from India.” As for Jews coming to India, Sofer said there are some 40,000-50,000 Israeli tourists a year, “usually post-military, who are coming for a little bit of shanti or whatever it’s called here, and for rest and relaxation after the hectic times that they’ve spent in school and military and before university. But we’re seeing, also, the profile of others who are coming here: growing numbers to learn much more about Indian culture, Indian mentality, ashram, yoga and a deeper tourism there as well.”

Sofer discussed some of the opportunities that exist for Israeli companies in India, including in water management. Israel is working very closely with India, he said. “We’ve brought over any number of water delegations to here.... It’s a question of educating the farmer what crops to grow: you don’t grow rice, for example, in desert areas, or you don’t – one shouldn’t – switch the tap on in the morning to water a field and leave it on all day. There are drip-irrigation systems.

“I would say, actually, that the drip-irrigation system is probably the best ambassador that we have here in India and wherever you go – this is a country of 700 million farmers, 700 million people who are dependent on farming and food for their daily needs.... We have the expertise. They have the human capacity to absorb this expertise and use it. And one cannot underestimate that in any way at all because some of these technologies are very sophisticated and there is never any difficulty whatsoever in planting and transferring these technologies to India, be it the larger farmer or the ministry of agriculture. Of course, when you’re talking about the small-time subsistence farmer, you have to talk of a lesser degree of technology.

“So water management and water issues are very, very high on our joint agenda.... And clean-tech fits in, in fact, in the same way. We just had a delegation here, three weeks ago, of 20 Israeli businessmen in the field of clean-tech. And the parliamentary delegation that came back from Israel of extremely high-level, cross-party Indian parliamentarians from both houses spent, actually, most of their time in clean-tech and water-technology facilities within Israel and brought [ideas] back home and want to implement them in their own constituencies.”

The India-Israel relationship extends beyond earthly matters, including the launching of a couple of satellites, said Sofer. “One of the reasons that things have gone so well between the Indian and the Israeli cooperation in space is ... we find that the scientists here, the engineers and the technicians in India ... you don’t get better than them anywhere in the world. It’s not a secret, either. They’re coming back in huge numbers now from the United States, or from wherever they’ve been studying, and beginning their careers outside of India. And there’s a sort of a reverse brain drain going on at this very moment.

“A cursory visit to Bangalore proves that out immediately. I was there recently and I know the Silicon Valley in the United States: I’m not quite sure which is more dynamic today. And that’s not to make any derogatory statement about the United States’ Silicon Valley, but there is nothing in the world in the field of high-tech, including space technology, which does not exist in India, nothing.”

Sofer touched upon several other issues in his talk, including India’s voting record at the United Nations.

“It’s true that the Indian voting patterns at the United Nations – like a number of other countries, incidentally – are not optimal, to use the understatement of the year,” said Sofer. But he pointed to India’s many constraints, such as its need for oil – and, therefore, a relationship with Iran, though Sofer said India “stood by the letter of the sanctions regime” – and its troubles with Pakistan. He also said, “The other side of the coin is, I think if you look at what happens prior to 1992 and where we are today, it’s very important to remember that India used to be the first country that would stand up and walk out when an Israeli representative would stand up to talk. This was very common in the ’70s and the ’80s.... However, what you’re certainly seeing now is first and foremost, if we just put the voting itself by the side, there is never an Indian sponsorship of an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations ... completely the opposite of what was the case.... We [also] usually have an extremely good cooperation with the Indian mission at the United Nations. I know the ambassador very well, actually.... But voting patterns are not easy to change because of other constraints. I think they will happen.”

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