In a rare and unscheduled meeting, Israeli President Shimon Peres met visiting Union Minister of State for Industry Ashwini Kumar in Jerusalem on Monday. Kumar, who is leading a delegation of top Indian industrialists to Israel, met him before meeting representatives of the country’s diamond industry. Diamond trade accounts for 60 per cent of Indo-Israeli business.

Commending India’s brisk economic growth, Peres told Kumar the fact that India has managed to retain its cultural identity and “soul” is something the rest of the world could take pride in. While acknowledging the recent growth in India and Israel’s trade and economic relations, Peres called for further co-operation in areas like solar energy, water technology, medicine, nano-technology and agriculture, especially organic agriculture.

It may be mentioned here that Israel and India are working towards signing a Free Trade Agreement. Kumar has also assured Jerusalem that New Delhi will actively consider it. Israel is also setting up a second trade office in India, most likely in Bangalore. Indo-Israel bilateral trade has touched $2.7 billion ever since diplomatic ties were first established between the two nations in 1992.