Netanyahu: $500mn Israel-India arms deal 'back on track'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says military officials accompanying him on a "very important" trip to India have managed to get "back on track" a $500 million arms deal that New Delhi had recently called off.

Nearly a month ago India announced that it was dumping a contract for 8,000 Spike anti-tank missiles made by Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael in favor of developing a domestic alternative called Nag.

"Following talks I have held with my friend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government has informed us that it is putting the Spike deal back on track. This is very important and there will be many more deals," Netanyahu said in a brief video statement.

There were no additional details available about the manner in which the deal would be completed but Israel's media said the original amount was going to be cut in half.

The deal has overshadowed Netanyahu's agenda during the ongoing five-day visit that began on Sunday. The Israeli PM is accompanied by Rafael's CEO Major General Yoav Har Even and a couple of other high-ranking Israeli commanders.

"The presence of the CEO on the prime minister's official and very important visit is crucial right now," an unnamed Israeli military source told Israeli daily Globes.

Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat have been personally working with Indian officials for a possible reapproval.

Asked earlier about the impacts of the deal's possible cancellation on military ties between the two sides, Netanyahu said he hoped the visit would help solve the issue because military ties with New Delhi were significant for Tel Aviv and encompassed a wide range of items.

Israel has been pushing hard to secure a foothold in India, which has become one of the world's leading arms purchasers over the past few years.

PressTV-India to buy Israeli missiles, Russian bombs

Under the deals, India will buy $72 million worth of missiles from Israel and $188 million worth of bombs from Russia.

Last year, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) landed a $2.5 billion deal to sell the Barak 8 missile systems to India. The contract remains the largest arms deal Israel has ever made.

To put that in perspective, Israel's exports to India capped at $1.5 billion in 2016. Weapons accounted for around $599 million of that figure, a whopping 48-percent of Israel's total arms sales of $1.2 billion around the world that year.

This makes the Tel Aviv regime India’s second-largest weapons supplier after Russia, which sold India $1.6 billion in arms in the same period.

Israel's imports from India, on the other hand, reached $800 million in 2016, consisting mostly of diamonds.

Netanyahu’s visit to India is the first by an Israeli prime minister since 2003, when former PM Ariel Sharon paid a visit to the country. It is also a reciprocal visit after Modi’s stop in Israel during the summer.

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