Ahead of PM’S Israel visit, Palestine prez heads to India

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is likely to visit India in May, a month ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit to Israel in June, multiple sources have told HT.

Modi’s will be the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Israel and he is set to skip visiting Palestine, in a break from the tradition of senior Indian leaders clubbing two countries in the same trip.

“We are looking at May for the visit of President Abbas to India. Discussions are underway to finalise the dates, most probably for the second half of the month,” a source told HT.

Though the Modi government is trying to put an end to hyphenating Israel with Palestine , historical legacy and its close ties with Arab world makes this a delicate process. India has been steadily increasing its defence and security ties with Israel since middle of 1990s, but the successive governments have kept the ties low profile in public.

However, the Narendra Modi government hasn’t been coy about its intention to scale up its ties with Israel . President Pranab Mukherjee became the first Indian head of state to visit Israel.

The President visited Palestine on October 12, 2015 before making a three-day trip to Israel from the next day-- something Modi is unlikely to repeat.

But government official insists that there is no change in India’s commitment to the Palestine cause and pointed out it was the Modi government which has done the “first ever India-palestine joint commission”. It was co-chaired from Indian side by the minister of state for external affairs M J Akbar. “The visit of Palestine Authority President will be another opportunity for India to step up the ties between the two countries”, said another source.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of India-israel diplomatic ties.

The pollution is not only increasingly posing a threat to the livelihood of people who live close to the sea, but is also severely affecting marine biodiversity.

“In the AWI Litterbase, we have for the first time analysed all groups of organisms affected by the litter, and have presented it in map form,” said AWI’S Dr Melanie Bergmann. “The number of affected marine species is currently at 1,220, and is rising steadily.”

The maps documented littered locations in India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, the United States, a large portion of Europe, the western coast of South America and even at isolated areas across the world. “It is important to bear in mind that the blank areas on our map don’t necessarily represent clean regions; instead they are blind spots,” Bergmann said.

THIS YEAR MARKS THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDIAISRAEL DIPLOMATIC TIES. THE MODI GOVT INTENDS TO SCALE UP TIES WITH ISRAEL.