Army Chief Gen Naravane leaves for Israel on 5-day visit

New Delhi, Nov 14: Army Chief General MM Naravane on Sunday left for Israel on a five-day visit to further strengthen India's defence and security cooperation with the Jewish state.

The visit by the Army chief comes weeks after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar travelled to Israel to explore ways to boost strategic ties. In August, then air chief marshal R K S Bhadauria had also travelled to Israel.

"General MM Naravane #COAS proceeded on a five-day visit to #Israel. The visit aims to further strengthen strategic defence cooperation between both countries," the Army said in a tweet.

Officials said Gen Naravane will hold wide-ranging talks with the top military brass of Israel on boosting overall military cooperation between the two countries.

In reflection of growing bilateral defence ties, India and Israel on Tuesday had inked an agreement to jointly develop next-generation technologies and products such as drones, robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

India has been a major buyer of Israel's military hardware. Israel has been supplying various weapon systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles to India over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.