As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for a stand-alone visit to Israel on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) to upgrade bilateral relations, its timing faces geopolitical headwinds. Mr. Netanyahu will receive Mr. Modi at the airport in Tel Aviv, as he did during the last visit in July 2017, and the two leaders are expected to travel together to Jerusalem. Any announcements on trilateral cooperation between India, the UAE and Israel during the visit will also have an impact in the region, where UAE-Saudi tensions are rising. Mr. Modi’s visit, the first since the two-year Israeli war on Gaza in which more than 70,000 were killed, also coincides with Israel’s plans to extend control over more territories under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which has sparked international condemnation. The Ministry of External Affairs strongly denied and dismissed Mr. Epstein’s claim in a conversation with a Qatari associate that he and Mr. Trump had in some way guided Prime Minister Modi’s last visit to Israel in 2017.

Source: The Hindu February 24, 2026 11:47 UTC