India, Israel to ink free trade pact soon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that Israel and India were close to signing free trade agreement between the two countries.Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna meets Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during the first high-ranking visit in over a decade.Speaking during a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, the first in over a decade, Netanyahu said India and Israel have both invested in key sectors of industry.I am delighted to welcome Foreign Minister Krishna to Jerusalem. India and Israel are two ancient peoples seizing the future in technology, in innovation, in enterprise and I think we can seize it even better by our co-operation. So, I look forward minister to discuss with you all these areas of co-operation between us, including the signing in the near future of a free trade agreement to multiply our trade, Netanyahu said.Trade between Israel and India was estimated at approximately five billion dollars in 2011, the signing of a free trade agreement could see this triple to over 15 billion dollars per year.Twenty years back we set up our diplomatic relationship, and we will be entering into the third decade of our diplomatic engagement. And I have come here basically to chart out a roadmap for the next two decades of Indian-Israel co-operation.We have learned so much from Israeli, particularly in the field of agriculture and science and technology, innovation and India is naturally an ally of Israel, said Krishna during the meeting.Krishna added that India is also looking to strengthen security co-operation with Israel.Security, terror, these are some of the issues which are commonly faced both by Israel as well as India. so I think we will have to work out a strategy as to how we address ourselves, this cult of international terrorism which has become the curse for the entire humanity. I think our effort should be to checkmate and eradicate terror from the face of the Earth, Krishna said.