Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar

Israel is not interested in allowing countries “that are not conducive to promoting moderation and peace” to play any executive role in Gaza, Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar has said, referring to Pakistan joining the Board of Peace on Gaza.“While Islamabad was invited to join the Board of Peace [by US President Donald Trump], Pakistan has no role on the ground,” he told TOI in an exclusive interview on Thursday.Pakistan, which does not recognise Israel, is among several Islamic nations that have joined the Trump-led initiative to end the war in Gaza.In December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that Washington was “very thankful to Pakistan for their effort to be part” of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), even as Islamabad has not yet decided to contribute troops to the UN-mandated multinational peacekeeping force for Gaza.On the issue of growing collusion between Hamas and Pakistan-based terrorist groups accused of launching attacks in India, Azar said Israel is keeping a close eye on these developments, noting increasing “movement and interactions” between the “Palestinian Hamas terror organisation” and terror elements in both Pakistan and Bangladesh.“We have seen [reports] in the open source. Envoys of Hamas visiting in higher occurrence in these areas. You can only imagine what they are doing in these parts… but we don’t know [exactly],” he said.While India has condemned the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, it has not formally designated the Palestinian armed group as a terrorist organisation.“Unfortunately, we’ve seen in Pahalgam the nature of atrocities that terrorists commit against civilians; we’ve seen that on October 7 [the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel] – and this is something that we have to be concerned about,” Azar said.According to the Israeli diplomat, India and Israel are “working together mainly to create capabilities that we need in order to counter these kinds of threats”.“We are not interfering with each other’s policies, but we are actually concentrating on creating capabilities that will allow us to defend ourselves in a more efficient way,” he said.Speaking on India-West Asia relations, Azar said India can play a pivotal role in fostering long-term peace and stability in the region, one of the world’s most volatile conflict zones.“India is the fastest growing power in the world today. Not only is its economy growing very fast, but it is also opening up to the world through a series of trade agreements that have been signed in the past year and a half. This is very significant because it will increase the volume of trade between India and different markets, including the West, and in our region.“There are three main markets that are attractive – Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. These are the biggest, the most robust markets in that part of the world. And India can provide a working force. India can provide infrastructure companies. India can engage with the countries in the region in different projects, be it in communications, innovation or logistics. I think that we all have a lot to benefit from…” he added.Azar is also very hopeful about the future of India-Israel ties.“The future is really very, very promising because we have, on the one hand, the deepening of our defence cooperation that is going to the next level, thanks to a series of agreements we are signing, which will allow us to cover more subjects and also cover more sensitive technologies. In addition to that, we are continuing our cooperation in water and agriculture that has a huge impact on small farmers in India,” he said.“We are also signing agreements in the economic field. The bilateral investment treaty that we signed, the TOR [terms of reference] for the Free Trade Agreement that we are going to negotiate are on a pretty fast track…[we’ll’ try to finalise it this year,” he added.When asked about defence and security ties between the two countries, Azar said a new agreement would be signed soon, which will allow “deployment of more sensitive technologies”.“We are building a robust mechanism to safeguard the secrecy of technologies. So this is going to allow both the government and the private sector to adhere to protocols that are going to make us confident to open up things that we haven’t opened up so far,” he said referring to technologies used in sophisticated weapons, high-tech drones among others.He also highlighted how Israel and India would focus on co-development and co-production of defence technologies and weapons.“The lessons we learnt from the conflicts in the past two years is that [first], we [Israel] have to upgrade our industrial capability in-house, but also that it’s worthwhile for us to cooperate with countries that we trust, in doubling that effort by creating production in those countries as well that would serve them and would serve us. So by upgrading production in both countries, we can lean on each other and develop joint resilience,” Azar told TOI on the sidelines of a seminar organised by Greater West Asia Forum, India (GWAFI), in collaboration with Red Lantern Analytica, a Delhi-based think tank.The seminar, held at the Constitution Club of India in Delhi, brought together policymakers, scholars, practitioners, and strategic analysts to deliberate on the evolving dynamics of India-West Asia relations, with particular emphasis on emerging coalitions, connectivity initiatives, and converging strategic interests in the region.Students from Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Amity University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Galgotias University and Delhi University also attended the event.