During his official visit to Israel, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal held a bilateral meeting with Israel’s Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, where discussions focused on strengthening investment linkages, expanding cooperation in financial technologies, and enhancing regulatory collaboration to facilitate more robust economic exchanges.
Between April 2000 and June 2025, India had received $337.77 million foreign direct investment (FDI) from Israel. In September this year, both the countries had inked a Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA) which led to reduction of the local remedies’ exhaustion period for Israeli investors in India from 5 years to 3 years.
Goyal also met the Israeli Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Avi Dichter for discussions on advancing agricultural collaboration, who briefed Goyal on Israel’s 25-year food-security roadmap, its advanced seed-improvement strategies, and water-reuse technologies for agriculture. The Indian Minister interacted with members of the diamond community before participating in the India-Israel CEOs Forum with Israel’s Minister of Economy Nir Barkat.
On 20th November, India and Israel had signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) to kickstart negotiations for a potential Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Both the countries had been negotiating a similar pact from May 2010 to October 2021 which had witnessed 8 rounds of talks. The proposed FTA aims to cover market access and liberalisation of trade, will progressively eliminate tariff barriers, and reduce non-tariff barriers by fast-tracking approvals and market access.
Discussions will include issues like investment, simplification of customs procedures, technology transfer, defence, space, fintech, agri-tech, AI, cyber security, R&D, innovation, fintech, and drip irrigation. Stating that the services sector will gain with IT, tourism, and collaboration on BPOs, Goyal said that an FTA will create a bridge for skilled and qualified professionals from India to work in Israel. The Minister added that 8 to 10 Indian companies have been shortlisted for work on a ₹4.5 lakh crore metro project in Tel Aviv, for which a pre-qualification interest has already been issued.
While Israel’s Minister Barkat expects a 10-fold rise in bilateral trade with an FTA, Goyal expects bilateral trade to rise to $30-40 billion over next 5 years. While Barkat described India as a big “bet” for the country, he indicated that Israeli companies aim to use India as an investment destination to serve entire Asia.
(Edited by : Poonam Behura)
