India shares many commonalities with Israel. Both countries are democracies with 5,000 years of history. Both have weathered the storm of hostilities and fought wars in every decade of their existence. Both became independent nations within months of each other: India on August 15, 1947 and Israel on May 14, 1948. Despite these common traits, it was only in 1998 that India and Israel decided to normalise relations.

India and Israel have recognised the need to forget the past and build bridges of cooperation for the future. Aware of the fact that it can gain from Israel in the field of defence cooperation, India has clearly marked out areas where potential for strategic collaboration exist. Israel, for example, can offer for sale indigenously developed sophisticated weapons and military equipment. That necessarily means that it does not have to bow down to external pressures preventing the sale. The technological advances Israel has made in satellites, satellite imagery, missiles, rockets and nuclear fields are appreciable. Once again, since most of them have been indigenously developed, they can be a source of advanced technology for India.

The Israel government’s Ministry of Science and Technology has a relatively small budget but has been playing an important role in shaping the future of the country. The main objectives of the ministry are the promotion of space activities, widening international scientific relations, developing industrial application-oriented scientific infras-tructures, strengthening scientific activities in peripheral areas and public awareness to science and technology. It is to fulfill these objectives that the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology established bi-national scientific cooperation agreements with 22 countries including India, USA, France, Germany, China, South Korea and many more.

The collaboration agreement in science and technology between India and Israel was signed way back on May 17, 1993. The agreement focuses on joint research projects, exchange of researchers and joint symposia. Among the joint research projects, a number have been approved in Agricultural Biotechnology, Lasers and Electro-optics, Information Technology and the human genome project. As for joint seminars, in December 1998, a joint Israeli-India seminar on human genome was held in Israel while in February 2001, joint seminars on Advanced Materials was held in India. In the latest joint meeting held on October 21, 2002, nine projects in science and technology were approved for an amount of US $2,50,000. Planning for joint activities in the framework of the progamme for the European community has been going on for sometime now.

Israel has been keen to better relations with India ever since the first moves were made. Bar Illan, Senior Adviser to Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israel Prime Minister said to a group of Indian journalists in July 1997: “We don’t have any limitations, (in terms of ties with India) we would like it to be as deep and tight and as prolific as possible.”

With such a strong commitment, it was not surprising for the Israel government to send its prestigious Albert Einstein, Man of the Century exhibition to India. Arranged by the Embassy of Israel, the National Council of Science Museums and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the exposition showcased not only the scientific brilliance of Albert Einstein but also his political and social activities. When it ends its tour around the country, Einstein could well play an important role in further enhancing the relationship between India and Israel.