India, Israel aim 10x growth in bilateral trade

New Delhi: There can be tenfold growth in bilateral trade between India and Israel, coupled with investments from both sides in the next 12–13 years and the current bilateral trade is “sub-optimal”, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Tuesday. Israel has also expressed keenness to collaborate with India on the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and said a team is working on an element of the project.

“Currently the bilateral trade is about $6.5 billion. Both of us feel that it is sub optimal and we do not want to see very low aspirations,” Goyal said after co-chairing India-Israel CEO Forum meet with Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir M Barkat.

Noting that there is a huge potential to enhance collaboration in areas such as deep tech, fintech, agritech, cyber security, defence, AI, water conservation, and renewable energy.


“We want to aspire to grow into significant high double-digits…I think that we can easily look at the 10x growth in our bilateral trade coupled with investments on both sides happening in the next 12-13 years or so,” he said.

The bilateral trade between India and Israel fell to $6.53 billion in FY24 from $10.77 billion in 2022-23. India received $327 million foreign direct investment (FDI) from that country between April 2000 and September 2024.

On the proposed free trade agreement between the two countries, Barkat said he agreed with the Indian commerce minister that “first let's get the Missions together and learn from them what they need”.

“We would like to better understand what are the challenges, what they recommend us to do, and naturally the next steps would be to take that... and put some kind of foundation,” Barkat said.

India and Israel held the first round of negotiations for the agreement in May, 2010. Eight rounds have been held since. The eighth round was held in Israel in 2013.

On the IMEC, Barkat said: “We are more than happy to collaborate on IMEC which is actually connecting India and Asia to Europe via Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel”.

The IMEC envisages a vast road, railroad and shipping networks among Saudi Arabia, India, the US, and Europe to ensure integration among Asia, Middle East, and West.

“We have a team in Israel starting the work on the elements from... Haifa and planning it as part of the bigger value chain, the supply chain and concept... I think each country separately is now preparing its part,” he said.