Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Defense relations between India and Israel remain
limited, a report said.

A leading Indian institute said Israel would probably not succeed in
expanding its defense and military relationship with New Dehli. The
Rajaratnam School of International Studies asserted that India, despite
purchasing nearly $1 billion per year in defense equipment, sought to keep
the relationship with India “limited and tactical.”

“Israeli arms sales to India may be mutually beneficial, but they are
largely confined to what they are: a limited economic, military-technical
connection,” the report, titled “Indian-Israeli Defense Cooperation: The
Elusive Strategic Partnership,” said.

Dated April 11, author Richard Bitzinger said India would probably
rebuff Israel’s efforts for a strategic partnership. Bitzinger, a senior
fellow Rajaratnam and former staffer at the Rand Corp., said India intends
to keep the Israeli relationship restrained.

“Nevertheless, beyond arms sales and a few other areas of defense
cooperation, it is unlikely that Israel will soon, if ever, realize a
strategic partnership with India,” the report said. “While India maybe be
very important to Israel’s foreign and security policy, New Delhi sees the
relationship in a much more limited respect. India has too many internal
constraints — a Muslim population of 160 million, an ardently anti-Israeli
left — to ever get too cozy with Israel.”

The report said India, despite Israeli appeals, would not abandon ties
with Iran. New Dehli also has alternatives to Israeli weapons, which
included early-warning aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, radars and
targeting pods.

“Israel is often a ready, no-strings-attached arms supplier,” the report
said. “Moreover, it has been willing to transfer technology and
manufacturing know-how to help improve India’s defence industry.”

Other areas of cooperation included counter-insurgency. The report said
Israel has offered to share intelligence as well as conduct CI exercises
with India.

“So long as New Delhi sees Indo-Israel defense cooperation as a tactical
relationship, then that is probably where it will remain,” the report said.

  Indo-Israel defense cooperation, New Delhi, not strategic, Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Report: India ties with Israel tactical