Sky is the limit for cooperation with India: Israeli Defence Minister

New Delhi: Terming his maiden visit to India’s "historic", Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Thursday said his country was ready to share technology and expertise with India to deepen ties in key areas of defence and security while noting that "sky is the limit" for cooperation. India is Israel's largest buyer of military hardware and it was the first visit by any Israeli Defence Minister to India after the two countries established full diplomatic ties in 1992.

"This is a historic visit by all means as we used to have our relationship, securitywise, behind the scene.We have many similarities that we find between India and Israel," he said delivering the 6th Annual R K Mishra Memorial Lecture at the Observer Research Foundation. Ya'alon complimented Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make In India' initiative and said Israel was "flexible" in sharing expertise with India.

"Israel is a tiny country but it does share a lot with India, including common interest," he said, adding, "We have found a way to cooperate behind the scene when it comes to security, we do cooperate in many areas."

He said that Israel was ready to share its technology and expertise with India in areas such as defence, security and technology at government-to-government level as also at the private sector level.

"We hope that by finding the way of cooperation between the two countries, sky is the limit. We are experienced and we are flexible," he said.

The Israeli Defence Minister said that his country's ties with India were independent of any third country and expressed the hope that India might one day be a bridge in achieving peace in the Middle East which is facing "chronic" political instability for a long time.

"I would like to emphasise that it (Indo-Israel relationship) is not against anyone," Ya'alon said, responding to a question on how does Tel Aviv saw it relations with New Delhi vis-a-vis Teheran.

"We, Israel, aspire for peace. Peace (shalom) is a value and we have many statements in our scriptures emphasising the need for peace," he said Responding to a question on China, Ya'alon said that Israel was open to expanding its ties with any country as long it was not hostile to its interest.

"The fact is that Israel is not allowed to enhance security relations with China because of the US interest. But again, Israel is ready to do so with many countries as long as they are not hostile to our country," he said.

He held Iran as "responsible" for the current political instability in the West Asian region. "We claim that the main instigator for instability in the Middle East today is Iran," he added.