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President Rivlin hosts joint India-Israel forum, applauds growing ties

President Reuven Rivlin hosted a meeting of Tel Aviv University’s India-Israel Forum at his residence, where he lauded the growing ties between the two countries.

By: Atara Beck, World Israel News

A gathering of Tel Aviv University’s India-Israel Forum at the President’s Residence Monday morning followed Indian President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Israel earlier this month. President Reuven Rivlin plans to visit India in the coming months.

The meeting included 40 representatives – 20 from each country – including the two serving ambassadors, faith and community leaders, journalists and business leaders. The forum was established with the goal of strengthening ties between Jerusalem and New Delhi.

“Trade between our two countries has grown in many fields – from innovation and technology to agriculture and water. But these are just the statistics. What is important is that more and more Israelis and Indians are working together to find new solutions to the key issues we face today – producing enough food, conserving water and developing new technologies and communications,” Rivlin stated.

Rivlin: Israel and India are ‘Natural Partners’

“I want to stress what a great pleasure it was to host President Mukherjee in Jerusalem just a few weeks ago,” he continued. “While he was here we made great progress on ways to further our bilateral trade, and I was very pleased to accept his kind invitation to visit India. We are working now to arrange a visit in the very near future during which I intend to travel together with Israeli business figures to meet their Indian colleagues, all of them experts in their fields, so that we continue to increase the cooperation between our two countries and between our two peoples.”

According to Rivlin, Israel and India are “natural partners in so many ways, but cannot sit back. If we don’t keep moving forward, we will find ourselves falling behind. I greatly look forward to my visit, and hope it will serve to make our friendship even more productive.”