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Iran Israel conflict: Tension between Iran and Israel is continuously increasing. The world's fears in the Middle East finally came true after Israel called for the death of Hamas chief Haniyeh and Hezbollah chief Nasrallah. According to Israel's advance warning, its army entered southern Lebanon on Tuesday and launched a ground attack targeting Hezbollah positions. On the other hand, Iran has finally jumped into the Middle East war. The IDF claimed that Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday night. Now the increasing tension between Iran and Israel is worrying for India. These two countries of the Middle East are the ones with which India has good relations, but when it comes to the most special and most important thing, somewhere Israel beats Iran.
Increase in trade between India and Israel
While trade between India and Israel has doubled in the last 5 years, trade between Iran and India has declined during this period. Experts believe that the increase in trade is evidence of strong relations between the two countries. Israel has never given any statement against India nor has it questioned any of its decisions. But this has been seen from time to time with Iran. Only last month, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had expressed concern about the Muslims of India.
He included India among the countries that violate Muslim rights. Khamenei compared India with Myanmar and Gaza and accused it of atrocities on Muslims. On his statement, India said that he should first see his record.
Apart from this, he has also given a statement on the Delhi riots of 2020. He termed the riots as genocide of Muslims. He also gave his reaction on the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. He said that we are concerned about the situation of Muslims in Kashmir. We have good relations with India but we hope that the Indian government will adopt proper policy towards the people of Kashmir and stop atrocities on Muslims in the region.
Friendship between Israel and India
India established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. Since then, relations between the two countries have strengthened. During this period, business has increased significantly. This has increased from approximately $200 million in 1992 to $10.7 billion in the financial year 2022-23. It has grown rapidly in the last four years. It has doubled. Increase from $5.56 billion in 2018-19 to $10.7 billion in 2022-23. Trade has increased by 36.90% between 2021-22 and 2022-23.
In 2022-23, India's exports to Israel stood at $8.45 billion, while New Delhi's imports from Israel stood at $2.3 billion. Bilateral trade reached $5.75 billion during the first 10 months (April-January) of the financial year 2023-24. Israel was India's 32nd largest trading partner that year, accounting for 0.92% of India's total trade of $1,167 billion during the financial year 2022–23. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India is Israel's second largest trading partner in Asia and seventh largest globally. At present there are about 18 thousand Indians in Israel.
Narendra Modi is the first Indian PM to visit Israel
After coming to power at the Center in 2014, Narendra Modi visited Israel in 2017. He was the first Indian PM to visit Israel. Israel and India have been working together on counterterrorism and defense issues for years, and India has been purchasing weapons from the Jewish state. You can gauge the strong friendship between Israel and India from the fact that when PM Modi visited Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu gave him a high level red carpet welcome. Wherever PM Modi went, Netanyahu remained with him. This is how they treat high profile guests like the US President.
friendship between iran and india
Just as Israel is important for India, so is Iran. India has also historically had good relations with Iran. The two have strong trade relations, especially in the fields of energy and infrastructure construction. India has recently acquired the operating rights of the strategically important Chabahar port located in Iran for 10 years. Along with this, Indian companies buy cheap oil from Iran.
However, India's trade with Iran has declined compared to Israel. Iran was India's 59th largest trading partner in the financial year 2022-23. With this, bilateral trade reached 2.33 billion dollars. India's trade with Iran seen declining before picking up pace in fiscal year 2022-23. It increased by 21.77% in 2021-22. It has increased from $1.94 billion to $2.33 billion in 2022-23. As far as citizens are concerned, 5 to 10 thousand Indians live in Iran. The top oil supplying countries to India like Saudi Arabia and Iran are in West Asia.
Effect of war on crude oil and weapons
The increasing tension between Iran and Israel will affect crude oil. India imports 85% of its crude oil requirement and 7% of its total consumption comes from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. In such a situation, this war can be a big challenge for India. Apart from crude oil, there is trade worth billions of dollars between India and Israel including arms, which can be affected by this war. Experts say that the war between Iran and Israel can also affect the Indian economy.
On the other hand, it may be difficult for India to maintain a policy of neutrality for a long time. If India tries to build its relations with Israel, then its relations with Iran may deteriorate and if India shows closeness with Iran, it may have to face the displeasure of America as well as Israel.