As of January 2021, the Israeli Embassy in India will include a water attaché whose role will be to promote Israeli water technologies in India and help respond to India’s needs in the field of water. Israel is the first country in the world to have an attaché for water affairs as part of an embassy.

The water attaché will function in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and will work with the Indian authorities as well as water companies in Israel, to connect them to local projects and contract bidding in the field of water.

The issue of water is one of the most important issues promoted by India’s Prime Minister Modi Narendra who has initiated an ambitious project to connect all private water networks in India to a central system. Israel has tremendous capabilities in the areas of irrigation, water treatment, recycling and desalination. The Israeli Foreign Ministry views this as a strategic project and is selecting the water attaché. Among the tasks of the attaché will be increasing Israeli exports to India.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi is advancing India-Israel cooperation in a variety of areas with his Indian counterpart Gishnakar. Water and culture agreements have recently been signed between Israel and India. A health agreement will also be signed soon. These join a long series of agreements signed during Netanyahu’s visits to Delhi and Modi’s visit to Israel.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken on the financing of the water attaché. Israel’s Ambassador to India Ron Malka said the new water attaché and the agriculture attaché will work through the 29 centers of agricultural excellence established by Israel across India as part of the cooperation between the countries. This cooperation includes sharing state-of-the-art Israeli water and agriculture technologies with India.