As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for a stand-alone visit to Israel on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) to upgrade bilateral relations, its timing faces geopolitical headwinds. While defence and security, labour and trade, AI and technology, and IMEC project connectivity will be at the top of the agenda for his meetings with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the outcomes will go beyond bilateral agreements to their symbolism and the message they send to the wider West Asian region.
Over the course of the 24-hour visit from February 25 to 26, most of the engagements planned will see the leaders together. Mr. Netanyahu will receive Mr. Modi at the airport in Tel Aviv, as he did during the last visit in July 2017, and the two leaders are expected to travel together to Jerusalem. Apart from bilateral talks and press statements on Thursday, they will both attend Mr. Modi’s address to the Knesset, a private dinner, an innovation event, a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum and possibly a meeting with the diaspora in Israel, billed as an interaction with the “Indian-Jewish” community settled there.
