India-Israel relations: A rose with some serious thorns.

India and Israel. How long have the two been related? Depends on who you ask. Some may say since 1950, when the Indian Republic recognised the State of Israel, some say since 1918, when Indian soldiers laid down their lives in the defence of Haifa under the then British Raj, some say since 2000 years, when ancient Jewish scriptures referred to India as Hodu in the book of Esther in the Old Testament, some say since 2017, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first ever Indian prime minister to visit the State of Israel.

The Knesset lit up in Indian colors ahead of PM Modi's visit. (x.com/KnessetENG)

But what is for the most part, unambiguous, is the rapidly accelerating, deepening and strategically consequential relationship and strategic partnership between India and Israel. This partnership and its path is being monitored by a veritable range of nations across the Middle East and the wider world. Qatar, the UAE, the KSA, Oman, the US, Russia, Pakistan, you name it. This partnership is now most recently making headlines because of Prime Minister Modi's scheduled two-day state visit to the State of Israel on the 25th and 26th of February 2026.

Many outcomes, plans, and missions are said to be in the works. A full trade agreement post the signing of the agreement laying down the terms of reference for said agreement, the strengthening of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, a possible missile deal for the procurement of the bunker-busting Golden Horizon, and many other partnerships, memoranda, and understandings are said to be in the pipeline as well.

India has had to tread an incredibly careful line in its relations with Israel, particularly due to the extremely precarious situation in the Gaza Strip, in what is being viewed as extreme overreach and unwarranted aggression against the people of Gaza, which has led to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis which has claimed thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives. Any posture that would seem too close to Israel would deeply unsettle the other Middle Eastern partners that India desperately cannot alienate due to first, the massive diaspora presence in those countries.

The "Hexagon" being touted by Israel as being a bulwark against what it sees to be the two "radical Sunni and Shia axes" in the Middle East, along with Greece and Cyprus, and two other nations, is the offer that it is making to India to become a player in Middle Eastern geostrategy, which has notoriously been a powder keg for the past century, where even the biggest of superpowers have faced massive failures. Thus, India would be wise to think and evaluate its priorities regularly before taking a call on joining the group.

The India-Israel-UAE-USA (I2U2) grouping on the other hand, is more of a paper tiger in its current form due to various factors, which India looks to revive as a more credible and viable alternative to Israel's grand plans in the region, but this depends on 4 largely divergent foreign policy paradigms, which can become a wedge if not handled correctly. But given the US' recent tilt towards what can best be described as isolationism, this grouping may face some severe challenges ahead, barring any radical shifts. However, India is seeming to partner with Israel as a more of a strategic move against Turkey, which has increasingly antagonized itself against India, due to its reported support to Pakistan during the May 2025 Indian airstrikes, by arming it with high-end drones and other supplies, and its increasingly vocal statements regarding the Kashmir dispute on platforms like the United Nations.

It remains to be seen how this partnership can grow, and in which direction it may find footing going into the future, as there are significant geopolitical headwinds that may threaten to destabilize the relationship between India and Israel, but holds the potential to completely redraw the map and the faultlines in the Middle East as we currently know it. But whether the relationship will remain steadfast even against immense geopolitical strain and diplomatic highwire treading on the Indian side, that may compel India to take decisions that Israel may not always be satisfied with, only time will tell.