Israeli PM Bennett postpones India visit after contracting Covid-19

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who contracted Covid19 has postponed his maiden trip to India planned for next week his office said on TuesdayBennett 50 was scheduled to visit India from April 3 to 5 to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countriesPrime Minister Bennetts trip to India has been postponed and will be rescheduled his office said in a brief statementBennett tested positive for Covid19 Sunday His office said the Prime Minister is feeling well and will continue to work from homeWe regret to inform you that the visit of HE Mr Naftali Bennett Prime Minister of the State of Israel to India has been postponed due to Covid19 The Prime Minister has tested positive for coronavirus Ambassador of Israel to India Naor Gilon said in a separate statementIt was not immediately clear when the trip would take placeWe are working with our Indian partners on another date for the visit as part of the celebrations of 30 years of Diplomatic Relations between the countries as well as 75 years of Indias independence Israel will continue to strengthen its robust friendship and growing partnership with the people of India Gilon addedThe premiers postponement came a day after Defence Minister Benny Gantz also put off his planned visit to India due to the volatile security situation in Israel after two deadly terror attacks claimed the lives of six Israelis within days The Times of Israel newspaper reportedThe maiden visit of Bennett who became prime minister in June last year was also aimed at expanding the cooperation between the two countries in the areas of innovation and technology security and cyber and agriculture and climate changeI am delighted to pay my first official visit to India at the invitation of my friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi and together we will continue leading the way for our countries relations Bennett had said while announcing his visit last weekModi restarted relations between India and Israel and this is of historic importance The relations between our two unique cultures the Indian culture and the Jewish culture are deep and they rely on deep appreciation and meaningful collaborations he had saidThe two leaders had first met on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow in November last year during which they reviewed the bilateral ties besides exchanging views about expanding cooperation in areas of hightechnology and innovationIndia and Israel elevated their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership during the historic visit of Prime Minister Modi to Israel in July 2017Since then the relationship between the two countries has focused on expanding knowledgebased partnership which includes collaboration in innovation and research including boosting the Make in India initiativePrime Minister Bennett has earlier described the deep relationship between India and Israel as one coming from the heart and not being about interests and urged Prime Minister Modi to work together to take the bilateral ties to a whole new levelThough India recognised Israel in 1950 full diplomatic relations were established in 1992This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever