Israel’s Finance and Industry Minister Nir Barkat is in India to attend the CII Summit. He met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. In an interview with The Indian ExpressHe spoke about potential areas of cooperation, the fate of Adani investments, the situation in West Asia and the impact on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor due to tensions in the region. Edited excerpts:
I think India and Israel have great opportunities together…We take the opportunities very seriously, especially when we see changes in geopolitics. India is growing very fast in its economy… a hub for international ways of doing business. It’s new… and I believe it will continue. Now, Israel is a country of innovation, but we are small. We are less than 10 million people, and so we have to rely on strategic partners, global strategic partners, to harness the potential of innovation, and that’s where ‘one plus one equals three’.
What are the possible areas of cooperation with the Indian counterpart?
I think security and homeland security have certainly been around for many years. We have a handful of companies that we share our experience with, and India is one of them. But we have to go into the more commercial areas of agro tech and food tech and aqua tech, desert tech. We bring solutions to major challenges, not only in Israel, we are part of the world.
There are some bribery charges against Adani in the US, and Adani is a major investor in Israel… could this affect investment in Israel?
This is not an issue for Israel. This is not an Israeli issue, and we are focused on how to improve relations with foreign investors. We welcome Indian investors.
How do you see the current state of conflict in West Asia stemming from the war in Gaza, then against Hezbollah and its influence in the wider region?
If you look at the geopolitics of West Asia, you find, especially now that President Trump is in office, the US, Israel and others will be focused on the jihadist reach between the Axis of Evil, Iran, Qatar and Iran. Proxies around Israel. They are the biggest source of terror and instability in our region. We strive to achieve stability in Israel, support and expand the Abraham Accords with the Saudis and others. We are willing to further align the coalition of moderates and the Western world against the challenges of Iran’s jihad.
I think the alignment that’s being formed now is against Iran … they want to build a nuclear bomb, it’s a huge threat to Israel, which we won’t allow, and they’ve accepted the fact that they’ve developed a proxy strategy and gone after us. To train, fund and direct Hamas to derail the October 7 Abraham Accords with the Saudis. So, now we have to go back and put things on track with the Saudis and stabilize the region.
In Lebanon, Beirut may be the Paris of the Middle East. It always tries to be there, but it is held hostage by Hezbollah, and it becomes a platform for them to launch an attack on Israel. So we are going after them. Lebanon must decide what to do.
Gaza is a different story. Gaza, we have two goals. First is to make sure that Hamas does not survive… They will be replaced by people who recognize Israel. And the second, of course, is the withdrawal of our hostages, the 101 hostages.
How do you see the region’s instability affecting the IMEC (India-Europe-Middle East Economic Corridor)?
We must defeat terror and jihad, radicalism… we are in the process of doing that. The area will be open for business. In Israel, I am an entrepreneur, and instability, I feel like a fish in water. We thrive where other people may falter. We thrive in unstable ecosystems. We now export $160 billion. And my goal is to reach one trillion dollars in 15 to 20 years…we can do it by collaborating globally. India has a huge opportunity to help us get there.