By John Helmer, Moscow
  @bears_with

In order to understand what Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar did in Israel, start by reading Modi’s Knesset speech here.  

Then calculate the weight of these Indian numbers:
– There are 1.4 billion Indians; the Jews of India count for less than 5,000.
– The number of foreign tourists to India last year came to 9 million; the number of Israeli tourists,  80,000.
– The Hindu population of India comprises a majority of 80%; the Muslims of India, 14%. The Hindi-speaking population of India is a minority of  44%; the non-Hindi speakers, a majority of 56%.
– Voter support for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is weakest in the south of India where the four most powerful states – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Kerala – have a total population of  360 million — one-quarter of the electorate. With the exception of Kerala, which has a Communist Party government, these states have significantly higher GDP and per capita growth rates than the northern states where support for Modi is highest.
– The only state leaders to publicly criticise Modi’s new alliance with Israel are Kerala in the west and Bihar in the east.  
– The Indian economy is more dependent on export of goods and services now than it was 25 years ago. In 2000 exports of goods and services amounted to 13% of India’s GDP; in 2024 they came to 22%.  This is less export-dependent than Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia; roughly equal to Russia, China and Indonesia; and more dependent than the US.  
– The dependency of the Indian economy on imported oil is currently 89%. Only the European Union (95%), Japan (90%), South Korea (90%), and Australia (90%) are more dependent.
– To replace the imports of Russian oil which India is cutting down at the demand of the Trump Adminstration, the replacement oil will come from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iraq. More than half of India’s oil imports must transit the Strait of Hormuz.
– The top five countries supplying arms and military systems to India are, in order of magitude,  Russia (36%), France, US, Israel, and South Korea.
– There are only three Indian arms makers in the world’s top-100 by size of revenue – they are Hindustan Aeronautics, Bharat Electronics, and  Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders. They rank 44^th, 58^th and 91^st on the global table. Israel’s top-3 arms makers rank far ahead; their combined revenues are more than double the top-3 Indian companies.  
– Hindustan Aeronautics, Bharat Electronics and Mazagon are state-owned and managed. The leading privately owned Indian arms builders – Tata, Adani and Ambani – are financial backers of the BJP.

In military terms Modi’s alliance with Netanyahu anticipates the privatization of India’s military-industrial complex.

Click to view or listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwWJBsk3n_k 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwWJBsk3n_k 

For more details of the Indian forward plan for the alliance with Israel:
       – The “Israel model” for the Indian takeover of Kashmir  
       – The India-Israel Joint Statement  

This is what the “Hexagon of alliances” (Netanyahu) and IMEC (Modi) looks like on the map:

The alternatives, opposed by the Trump Administration, are the North South Transport Corridor linking India, Iran and Russia; the Russian Arctic or Northern Route; and China’s Belt and Road  Initiative:

by Editor - Friday, February 27th, 2026