 "Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a visit to India yet again. Reuters")
Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed his trip to India yet again. This is the third time in 2025 that the Israeli Prime Minister has put off his long-awaited visit to India.
The development comes ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin slated to arrive in India in the first week of December.
But what happened? What do we know? How does political trouble at home keep affecting Netanyahu’s India plans?
Israeli media cites security concerns
Israeli media has reported that Netanyahu’s trip was cancelled in the wake of the Red Fort blast in which over a dozen were left dead and dozens injured.
“Netanyahu, who last visited India in 2018 and was set to return for meetings with PM Modi, is now expected to seek a new date next year pending security assessments,” i24NEWS, which quoted sources, reported.
Netanyahu, after the 10 November incident , offered condolences to India and Modi.
“To our dear friend Narendra Modi and to the brave people of India: Sara and I, and the people of Israel, send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Israel stands strong with you in sorrow and in strength in this time,” Netanyahu’s statement read.
Netanyahu was to meet Prime Minister Narendra Mod i during his trip scheduled for later this year. The Israeli Prime Minister last visited India in 2018. That six-day visit was just the second trip by an Israeli Prime Minister to India in history. It came in the aftermath of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visit to Israel in 2017.
How political trouble at home keeps affecting India plans
This isn’t the first time Netanyahu has postponed his plans to visit India this year.
Netanyahu earlier cancelled a day-long visit to India in September as well as a visit scheduled for April. Domestic political considerations and the threat of snap elections were cited as the reasons for putting off the visit on both occasions.
In April, thousands of people had taken to the streets of Israel to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and to put pressure on the government to secure the release of the hostages. Demonstrators were also enraged over Netanyahu’s firing of the head of the internal Shin Bet security agency and the government’s attempt to fire the attorney-general – widely viewed as part of the government’s attempt to undermine state institutions. Netanyahu, for his part, had claimed that the ‘leftist deep state’ was out to get him.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s coalition was seemingly on the verge of fracturing over the direction of the war in Gaza, his attempts to remake the judiciary and over exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox. Polls showed a lack of trust in Netanyahu by the public and an increased interest in opposition figures such as Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid.
By September, Netanyahu’s coalition government had been weakened after the exit of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties, which reduced the coalition strength in the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) to just around 50 seats.
This came after Netanyahu’s coalition had already faced a formal motion to dissolve the Knesset in June. However, Gideon Sa’ar’s centrist New Hope party, which left the alliance in June 2024, rejoined the coalition, increasing Netanyahu’s majority to 68 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
Netanyahu hailed the move, which somewhat watered down the influence of the far-right parties in his coalition such as Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism, as a ‘broad and stable government’. Elections are due next in Israel by October 2026.
Ironically, this isn’t the first time that Netanyahu has cancelled a visit to India multiple times in a year. Netanyahu’s visit to India has been pending since 2019 due to political turmoil in Israel, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the war in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu in 2019 also postponed his visit to India twice due to Israel holding parliamentary elections.
Then, the pandemic hit and all thoughts of visits abroad were put to one side. Netanyahu isn’t alone. In 2022, then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was set to visit India. However, just weeks ahead of the visit he tested positive for Covid-19, leading to the trip being called off.
Netanyahu’s visit to India was largely seen as an effort by the Israeli government to put him on an equal footing with other world leaders. In July, Netanyahu’s Likud party put up banners featuring Netanyahu with PM Modi, US President Donald Trump, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
India–Israel launch FTA talks
The development came days after Commerce Minister Piyuysh Goyal met both Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem as talks for a free trade agreement (FTA), which have been ongoing since 2013, picked up steam.
India and Israel recently signed the terms of reference to launch FTA talks. Netanyahu, after the meeting with Goyal, wrote on X, “Israel and India are strengthening our strategic partnership, more investments, more innovation, and a strong economic corridor from India through Israel to Europe. Together we are building economic power”.
Meanwhile, Goyal wrote on the social media platform, “Our discussions covered the full spectrum of our strategic partnership, including trade and investment, science & technology, innovation, and deeper economic engagement.”
During 2024-25, India’s exports to Israel dipped 52 per cent to $2.14 billion (Rs 1.91 lakh crore) from $4.52 billion (Rs 4.03 lakh crore) in 2023-24. Imports, too, fell 26.2 per cent to $1.48 billion (Rs 1.32 lakh crore) last fiscal year. The bilateral trade stood at $3.62 billion (Rs 3.23 lakh crore).
India is Israel’s second-largest trading partner in Asia.
“The FTA will open the doors for greater market access, flow of capital… both in goods and services, remove obstacles in doing business, provide clarity and predictability to our economic engagement,” Goyal said. He added that the FTA can help push trade to $30-40 billion (Rs 26.75–35.67 lakh crore) over the next five years.
In September, both countries inked a Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA), under which India reduced the local remedies exhaustion period for Israeli investors to 3 years from 5 years. During April 2000 and June 2025, India received $337.77 million (Rs 3,012 crore) in foreign direct investment (FDI) from Israel.
With inputs from agencies