Following are Prime Minister Bennett's remarks at the start of the meeting:
"I want to thank you. You're the person who restarted the relationship between India and Israel, which is a deep relationship between two unique civilizations – the Indian civilization, the Jewish civilization – and I know it comes from your heart. It's not about interests; it's about a deep conviction that you harbor and we feel it. On behalf of all Israeli citizens, we deeply appreciate this whole new approach that will go down in history as something that you brought about. So thank you.
Indeed, my personal experience, to a great degree, shaped my feelings. As you recall, when I ran a hi-tech company, we merged with an Indian company – the two 'I's, India and Israel in Manhattan. In the office, there were a bunch of Israelis and Indians, and getting together created a remarkable dynamic of innovation. There's so much that we can learn from you.
This is indeed what we seek to do. Our goal is to continue the wonderful path that you placed with my predecessor, and bring it to a whole new level, so we can ensure that our two nations work together on innovation, technology, space, security, agriculture, food technologies, and of course climate-related technologies.
I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your people greetings for the Diwali holiday, and I want to thank you again for the friendship."
During the meeting, Bennett told the Indian premier he was 'the most popular person in Israel', and asked if he'd consider joining Bennett's Yamina faction.
