NEW DELHI: India and Israel on Wednesday agreed to further strengthen their already expansive defence cooperation with a long-term perspective, even as Tel Aviv strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22.
The countries also decided to work towards developing an institutional framework to further deepen their bilateral defence ties in talks between defence secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and director general of Israeli defence ministry Major General Amir Baram here.
"The Israeli DG condemned the terrorist attack in Pahalgam and conveyed full support for India's fight against
terrorism. Singh, in turn, reiterated India's zero tolerance approach to terrorism. Singh also condemned the terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct 7, 2023, and called for release of all hostages," an official said.
The two sides reviewed progress of the ongoing defence collaboration activities since the last joint working group meeting held in July 2024. "This visit by the Israeli DG Israel marks a pivotal step in India-Israel defence relations and reinforces both sides' commitment to enhance their strategic partnership," the official said.
India had extensively used Israeli-origin weapon systems during the cross-border hostilities with Pakistan from May 7 to 10. India, for instance, used the Israeli Harop and Harpy kamikaze drones, which act as cruise missiles by exploding into enemy targets and radars, to hit air defence sites and other targets deep inside Pakistan, as was earlier reported by TOI.
India also used Barak-8 medium range surface-to-air missile systems, jointly developed with Israel, as part of its multi-layered air defence network to thwart the multiple waves of Turkish drones and Chinese missiles fired by Pakistan.