Israel offers to assist India in border fencing

New Delhi, Sep 23: Israel today offered to India its expertise for strengthening border fencing, stressing that the two countries share "similar challenges" on many fronts, including cross-border terrorism.

The comments made by Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon assume significance in the wake of last Sunday's terror attack in Uri, where the terrorists were believed to have come from Pakistan crossing the Line of Control.

The top Israeli diplomat said his country is following the development with concern and affirmed that cooperation on terrorism shall be a permanent feature of bilateral ties.

Carmon said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, during his last visit to Israel, was shown the country's preparedness level at the borders.

"Our message is, yes, Israel has the expertise, because it has been under threat. We do share similar challenges. We have the solutions. We can work together on the solution.

"We have shown in other areas that we can cooperate and this might and should be the case here as well," Carmon said during a media briefing on the upcoming HLS and Cyber Conference in Tel Aviv.

Asked about the Uri attacks, which claimed the lives of 18 soldiers, Carmon said Israel's cooperation with India on a daily basis on anti-terrorism, defence and homeland security "is there, was there and will continue to be there".

"There is a need to confront terrorism. There is a tactical way to do this. There is an international, diplomatic way to do this and I am sure and confident that India knows exactly what it needs to do," he said.

Carmon said that Israel was willing to share conceptual and technological knowledge on how it was countering cyber threats, which he said can emanate from anywhere and not any particular country.

The conference will be held between November 14-17 where a number of Indian companies are expected to participate.

PTI