During President Rivlin’s visit to India he met with PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday November 15th. During the visit they spoke about the growing cooperation between the two countries including the development of water technologies, agriculture, innovation and research.
President Rivlin thanked PM Modi for the warm welcome and pointed out that the two countries will celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations in 2017, a partnership which develops both countries. He also highlighted that PM Modi has called on the world to “Make in India” and that Israel is proud of its ability to turn ideas into reality and is looking forward to see how Israeli innovation and India’s industrial power can work together.
In addition to this President Rivlin paid his respect to a site of terror attacks and said that Israel and India are threatened by terror because both countries uphold the values of freedom. “Nothing can justify terror. Terror is terror. We stand together, with the whole free world in defending our peoples, and our values”.
PM Modi thanked President Rivlin for his visit and said that this visit will provide a crucial push for the countries’ efforts to build new pillars in their partnership. In addition to this, the growing number of Indian students going to study in Israel and vice versa will and can be an important bridge for the two countries’ bilateral partnership.
PM Modi urged private sector stakeholders on both sides to take lead in utilizing this perfect opportunity to build business ties of commerce and investment between the two countries in relation to agriculture, micro-irrigation in drought prone areas and water management.
PM Modi ended his speech by saying that as both countries are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism, it has to be recognized that terrorism is a global challenge and both parties agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them.
President Rivlin went on to hold a series of meetings with other key officials and in the evening the President and First Lady attended a dinner in honour of their visit.