New Delhi: For the second time this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apparently cancelled his proposed visit to India due to “scheduling constraints” ahead of his country’s general elections, and reportedly spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about it on Tuesday. Israeli media reports quoted a statement from the Israeli PM’s office as stating, “A short time ago, the (Israeli) Prime Minister spoke with India’s Prime Minister. The two agreed that due to scheduling constraints — the (Israeli) Prime Minister’s visit will take place after the election.”

The Israeli general elections are scheduled to take place on September 17. This will be the second general elections there this year, after the Israeli PM failed to cobble up a majority after the first one held in April.

Just last week, the ministry of external affairs (MEA), in response to a question, had not spelt out the dates of the visit, which indicated that it had perhaps not been finalised. However, there had been speculation that the visit was proposed to take place on September 9 and that it was to have been a day-long brief visit before the Israeli elections.

Mr Netanyahu was initially scheduled to make a brief visit to India sometime in April or May before the Lok Sabha polls in India but that visit too did not materialise.

There is already a robust defence relationship between the two countries, with Israel having already sold billions of dollars worth of armaments, and defence platforms and equipment to India in the past more than 15 years. More armament purchases are expected in due course.

The tiny Jewish state had created quite a sensation last month by greeting India on the occasion of “Friendship Day” with a Twitter message, swiftly drawing a warm response from PM Modi who tweeted back in Hebrew that the bond between the two countries is “strong and eternal” and that the two nations are “time-tested friends”. PM Modi and his Israeli counterpart share an excellent personal rapport with each other.