Israel willing to share technology with India, says Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon
By ANI | ANI – 1 hour 22 minutes ago



New Delhi, Feb. 19 (ANI): Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon on Thursday said that his nation has understood the importance of technological advantages over its adversaries, adding that Tel Aviv is willing to share the same with its 'partner' India.

Yaalon said Israel, as a tiny country, has realised that technology is very significant.
"In order to overcome our disadvantages - in territory and in population, we found a way to turn disadvantages into advantages. We used to be short of water, but not anymore by developing a desalination system to produce drinking water. We are short of land, so we have developed technology for agriculture in very hot climates - in the desert, where it is can get to 50 degrees in the summer," Yaalon said, while speaking at the RK Mishra Memorial Lecture in the national capital.

"We are willing to share our techniques, our technologies, our know-how with India,"he added.
Speaking of the circumstances that brought about those technological advantages, Yaalon said that his nation was a 'tiny country' in a 'tough neighbourhood'.

"There are a lot of similarities between India and Israel. We are both democracies and we share common aims and common interests. But when it comes to our size, we cannot compare. Israel is a tiny country and only eight million citizens. Israel is a tiny country living in a very tough neighbourhood: the Middle East," he said.

"We are encircled by countries that aim at our destruction by conventional warfare by armed invasions into our lands from the day of the declaration of our independence. Later on, our neighbours realised that there is no way to defeat Israel through conventional warfare and so they turned to sub conventional warfare - rockets and even missiles - targeting our civilians. But we have developed a system by which we can intercept these rockets, by which we can avoid casualties as well as property damage. Having said that, we have had to make all sorts of changes security-wise in order to overcome non-conventional warfare, conventional warfare and sub-conventional warfare," he added.

Yaalon, who is the first Israeli Defence Minister to visit India in an official capacity, had earlier in the day called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India imports critical defence technologies from Israel. There are regular exchanges between the armed forces.
There is cooperation on counter-terrorism issues, through a Joint Working Group on counter-terrorism that meets periodically.

In February 2014, India and Israel signed three important agreements on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, Cooperation in Homeland and Public Security, and Protection of Classified Material. (ANI)

https://in.news.yahoo.com/israel-wil...21533842.html?

[img]
Israel says security ties with India out of the closet
BY SANJEEV MIGLANI
NEW DELHI Thu Feb 19, 2015 6:13pm IST[/img]


Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon gestures while addressing a gathering during a lecture themed ''Israel-India Partnership in the 21st Century'', in New Delhi February 19, 2015.

(Reuters) - Israel's security relationship with India is out in the open after years of being under wraps, the Israeli defence minister said on Thursday, vowing to play a bigger role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive to build an industrial base.

Israel has emerged as one of India's top three arms suppliers, delivering items such as ship defence missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, but such transactions have been unpublicised, largely because of India's fear of upsetting Arab countries and its own large Muslim population.

But Modi, whose nationalist party has long seen Israel has a natural ally against Islamist militancy, has openly cultivated warmer ties, beginning with a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York last year.

Since then, various government ministers and top officials have been exchanging visits and on Wednesday, Moshe Ya'alon arrived in India, the first visit by an Israeli defence minister since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992.

"We used to have our relationship, security wise, behind the scene," he said in a speech in New Delhi after attending an airshow in Bengaluru.

"And now I am here ... in Delhi to meet Prime Minister Modi and other ministers."

The visit comes as the two sides hold talks on a major deal for the supply of two airborne early warning radars to be mounted on India's Russian-made aircraft.

Three such Phalcon AWACS that give the air force the "eyes in the sky" to detect flight movements across a wide arc were inducted in 2004, signalling the beginning of a strategic partnership.

Israel was dissuaded from selling the same system to China because of pressure from the United States, officials said.

Ya'alon said Israel was ready to share defence technology with India.

"We see India as a partner and a friend. That is why we are ready to share technology,"he said, adding that he was looking for ways to upgrade the defence relationship.

Under Modi, India has speeded up an arms modernisation drive to counter the rising weight of China, but the government wants to cut dependence on foreign supplies and instead build a domestic industrial base under a Make-in-India drive.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/0...0LN14S20150219