By IANS,
New Delhi : The Indian Army chief, General V.K. Singh’s visit to Israel, this country’s second largest military supplier, planned for March 16-18, has been indefinitely postponed, an officer said Tuesday.
Though no reasons have been cited, there are suggestions this could be due to the recent diplomatic issues concerning the Feb 13 terror attack on an Israeli embassy staffer’s car in the Indian capital.
While Israel has blamed traditional adversary Iran for the strike, India has maintained that there is no evidence pointing to this.
“The visit has been postponed indefinitely,” an army officer said here.
Gen. Singh’s visit to Israel was part of India’s continuing high-level bilateral visits. Israel is a major Indian partner in defence research and development projects, which include surface-to-air missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Israel is India’s second largest defence supplier after Russia, garnering business worth over $10 billion since 1999, when India fought the Kargil war with Pakistan.
Gen. Singh had visited Britain in the middle of February.