In the last 15 years, Israel has unseated the Russians to become the biggest arms supplier to India. How did the country, accorded a mere token recognition by India only in the early 1990s, become its major arms supplier?

Established by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indo-Israel relations however were kept low key due to the Arab equation. Israel made periodic efforts to upgrade the relationship but were unsuccessfully. Successive Indian governments, however, extended due courtesies where required and tried to acquire Israeli assistance in matters of defence.

Indo-Israel relations remained almost non-existent till the early 1990s when the changed geo-strategic environment compelled India to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992. Key factors that effected this turn around were the Gulf War which eroded the unity of the Arab world, end of the Cold War, Pakistan’s propaganda against India in the West Asian and North African states in an effort to internationalise the Kashmir issue, lack of support from the Arab countries during the time of crisis and their support to Pakistan at the Organisation of Islamic Conference meetings. There was also a growing awareness of Israel’s technological success, especially in the defence industry. After normalisation of relations, the two countries continued to explore as many areas as possible for mutual co-operation which included military in a big way.

Israel’s military industrial complex

Hemmed in by a hostile environment, Israel has strived to develop its Military Industrial Complex due to compulsions of security threats. It also helped in achieving self-reliance, carry out import substitution and gradually emerge the fourth largest exporter of defence equipment after the US, Russia and France. Israel has acquired expertise in small arms, ammunition, communications, force multipliers, remotely piloted vehicles, electronic warfare and related systems, night vision devices; naval equipment ranging from command and control systems, missiles and anti-missile systems to a variety of patrol boats.