Why India won't walk away from its arms partnership with Israel

India's arms trade with Israel reflects a long-term strategic alliance that New Delhi is unlikely to abandon despite mounting evidence that its exports are fuelling Israel's war in Gaza, experts have told The New Arab, after Amnesty International warned that India was risking complicity in Israel's ongoing genocide.

The rights group's investigation, published on Thursday, found that Indian companies had continued supplying weapons and military components to Israel since the start of war on Gaza in October 2023, raising concerns that New Delhi was failing to meet its obligations under international humanitarian law.

But analysts say the trade is not an anomaly born of the Gaza conflict. Rather, it is the product of a decades-long defence partnership that has become one of the cornerstones of India's foreign and security policy.

"India and Israel share a close strategic partnership today, driven primarily by defence and security cooperation," Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar, a retired Indian Navy officer, strategic analyst and director of the Society for Policy Studies, told The New Arab. "Over the decades, this has grown into a robust relationship, and military technology cooperation is an important element."

According to Bhaskar, the modern defence relationship dates back to the 1999 Kargil War, when Israel emerged as one of the few countries willing to rapidly supply India with military equipment during its conflict with Pakistan.

That assessment is echoed by Nicolas Blarel, an associate professor of international relations at the Institute of Political Science, who said Israel's willingness to arm India when many Western governments hesitated transformed the relationship into a long-term strategic partnership.

"It's out of complete convenience," Blarel told The New Arab. "Israel had already given India drones, certain ammunition, and it also didn't follow the international embargo. It's not a completely new development. It's public knowledge that India is probably the biggest buyer of Israeli weapons today."

Rather than simply importing Israeli weapons, India has expanded into manufacturing military equipment and components through Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" initiative, with Israeli defence firms establishing joint production arrangements inside the country.

Amnesty International's report argues that this industrial cooperation now places India within supply chains supporting Israel's military operations in Gaza.

The organisation documented at least 2,596 shipments of military equipment from India to Israel since 7 October 2023, when Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza. The genocidal war has since killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children.

Among the exports identified were more than 390,000 small-arms components, over 560,000 explosive ordnance parts - including drone warheads and artillery shell casings - and hundreds of military vehicle components destined for major Israeli defence companies supplying the Israeli army.

Amnesty said some of the exports included components for 155mm artillery shells supplied to Elbit Systems and explosive warheads for SkyStriker loitering munitions resembling remnants documented in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The organisation argued that India's export controls contain significant gaps, including the absence of an explicit legal requirement to assess whether military exports could contribute to violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.

It warned that, without stronger safeguards, India risks contributing to alleged breaches of international law.

A test of India's global ambitions

Sabena Siddiqi, a foreign affairs journalist and geopolitical analyst, said Amnesty's findings would intensify scrutiny of India's growing defence industry even if the report itself does not constitute a judicial determination.

"India's emergence as a defence exporter inevitably brings greater international scrutiny over where its weapons are ultimately used," she told The New Arab. "While the report's allegations are not judicial findings, they raise questions that India cannot simply dismiss given its growing global ambitions."

Bhaskar, however, characterised New Delhi's approach as one of "clinical pragmatism", arguing that strategic interests continue to outweigh political considerations despite India's historic support for the Palestinian cause.

"Despite India's earlier pro-Arab stance and the [Gaza war], India has chosen to maintain its close relationship with Israel based on its core security interests," he said.

The relationship has deepened under Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Modi visited Israel earlier this year despite the continuing war in Gaza, while Israel publicly backed India during its 2025 conflict with Pakistan, where Indian forces deployed Israeli-made weapons.

Amnesty is now urging India to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty, an international agreement regulating conventional weapons transfers that New Delhi declined to join when it was adopted in 2013.

The rights group argues that joining the treaty would be an essential first step toward aligning India's arms export system with international legal standards and ensuring its defence industry is not implicated in future violations abroad.