Overview

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Israeli counterpart Bezalel Smotrich signed the agreement on September 8 during his three-day visit.
• The treaty provides guarantees such as fair and equitable treatment, non-discrimination, protection from expropriation, free transfer of funds and access to arbitration for disputes.
• Smotrich’s itinerary includes meetings with Piyush Goyal and Manohar Lal Khattar, along with stops in Mumbai and at the GIFT International Financial Services Centre in Gandhinagar.
• Officials have cast the deal as laying groundwork for a prospective free trade agreement and deeper collaboration in fintech and financial services.
• The move comes as bilateral trade hovers near USD 4 billion annually, with Indian ODI to Israel at USD 443 million and Israeli FDI into India at USD 334.2 million since 2000.