As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for a stand-alone go to to Israel on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) to improve bilateral relations, its timing faces geopolitical headwinds. Whereas defence and safety, labour and commerce, AI and know-how, and IMEC undertaking connectivity will likely be on the high of the agenda for his conferences with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the outcomes will transcend bilateral agreements to their symbolism and the message they ship to the broader West Asian area.
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Over the course of the 24-hour go to from February 25 to 26, many of the engagements deliberate will see the leaders collectively. Mr. Netanyahu will obtain Mr. Modi on the airport in Tel Aviv, as he did over the past go to in July 2017, and the 2 leaders are anticipated to journey collectively to Jerusalem. Other than bilateral talks and press statements on Thursday, they may each attend Mr. Modi’s tackle to the Knesset, a personal dinner, an innovation occasion, a go to to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum and presumably a gathering with the diaspora in Israel, billed as an interplay with the “Indian-Jewish” group settled there.
Particularly, Mr. Netanyahu’s plans to announce a “hexagonal alliance” with India, Greece and Cyprus, and a few unnamed Arab, African and Asian nations in opposition to “each radical Sunni and Shia axes”, will likely be watched intently by these nations seen to be focused, together with Iran, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, every of which has historic and sophisticated ties with India. Any bulletins on trilateral cooperation between India, the UAE and Israel throughout the go to may even have an effect within the area, the place UAE-Saudi tensions are rising.
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“The intention right here is to create an axis of countries that see eye-to-eye on the fact, challenges, and targets in opposition to the novel axes, each the novel Shia axis, which we now have struck very onerous, and the rising radical Sunni axis,” Mr. Netanyahu instructed his cupboard whereas asserting Mr. Modi’s go to on Sunday (February 22, 2026). The feedback got here simply as U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee mentioned in an interview that it “could be superb” if Israel have been to take management of many of the biblical Center-East or West Asia, main commentators to attract a hyperlink between the remarks.
To journey to Tel Aviv, Mr. Modi may even need to navigate U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to assault Iran, each actually and figuratively, amid a U.S. navy build-up and withdrawal of personnel from key bases throughout West Asia. Whereas assaults don’t seem doubtless this week, given Iran-U.S. talks on Thursday, it have to be remembered that U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear amenities in June 2025 passed off whilst negotiations have been ongoing. Dealing with questions over India’s journey advisory asking residents in Iran to go away the nation, International Secretary Vikram Misri mentioned at a parliamentary committee assembly on Monday (February 23, 2026) that the Prime Minister’s safety could be ensured . Nonetheless, New Delhi would even have to contemplate the optics of being caught in cross-fire between Iran and Israel, simply as Mr. Modi will likely be standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Netanyahu.
The go to may have an effect on India’s ties with Iran instantly, a rustic that borders South Asia and has lengthy provided India vitality and connectivity choices. In deference to Mr. Trump’s sanctions, the Modi authorities stopped importing Iranian oil in 2017. Commerce and funding declined subsequently, and extra not too long ago improvement of the Chabahar port terminal has been curtailed. In January, New Delhi postpone the scheduled go to of Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi and has not but rescheduled it. Later this 12 months, New Delhi is anticipated to host the BRICS summit, the place Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will likely be invited.
Mr. Modi’s go to, the primary for the reason that two-year Israeli warfare on Gaza during which greater than 70,000 have been killed, additionally coincides with Israel’s plans to increase management over extra territories underneath the Palestinian Authority within the West Financial institution, which has sparked worldwide condemnation. India was hesitant to hitch an announcement on the United Nations, finally signed by 100 nations criticising Israel’s violations of worldwide regulation over the plans, and the Indian mission signed it a day after it was introduced at a joint press convention by dozens of diplomats. When requested final week, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs spokesperson mentioned the Palestinian mission and others had proceeded with an announcement that was not a “negotiated doc”.
Nonetheless, the federal government didn’t clarify why it delayed, whereas nations such because the U.Ok., Australia, Japan, Germany and France signed instantly. Mr. Modi’s talks with Mr. Netanyahu on the way forward for Gaza may even be important, given the U.S. “Board of Peace” plans for reconstruction, administration and peacekeeping of the Gaza Strip, and India’s determination to take part solely as an observer on the first assembly in Washington. As Israel heads to elections later this 12 months, Mr. Netanyahu faces requires safety accountability over the October 2023 terror assaults, and Mr. Modi’s feedback throughout the go to will likely be scrutinised by Israeli opposition events, which have threatened to boycott the Knesset speech over the tussle between the Israeli authorities and the Supreme Courtroom.
Lastly, the go to comes as paperwork launched by the U.S. Division of Justice on communications by convicted intercourse trafficker and investor Jeffrey Epstein, who had shut hyperlinks to Israeli leaders together with a former Prime Minister, have triggered controversies and resignations in a number of nations. The Ministry of Exterior Affairs strongly denied and dismissed Mr. Epstein’s declare in a dialog with a Qatari affiliate that he and Mr. Trump had indirectly guided Prime Minister Modi’s final go to to Israel in 2017.
Printed – February 24, 2026 04:00 pm IST
