An Israeli soldier displays a Spike anti-tank guided missile launcher. Photo: Natan Flayer via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org — India has cancelled a $525 million missile deal with Israel, in a development that goes against the grain of the growing relations between the two countries, Indian media reported on Monday.

India’s 2014 deal to purchase Spike anti-tank missiles from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has been overturned, The Indian Express reported. Instead, India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation reportedly plans to develop and produce its own anti-tank missile domestically.

In April, Israel Aerospace Industries inked agreements amounting to $2 billion with India, including a $1.6 billion contract to deliver a medium-range surface-to-air missile defense system and a $400 million deal for a long-range surface-to-air missile system.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel in July in the first such trip by a sitting Indian head of state, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit India next January.

India is Israel’s 10th-largest trade partner worldwide and its second-largest trade partner in Asia. In 2016, trade between Israel and India amounted to $4 billion.

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Source:: The Algemeiner

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