Indian President Pranab Mukherjee will become the first Indian president to visit Israel when he arrives next week.

Israeli President Rueven Rivlin said that the trip will “deepen the friendship between our states, in the fields of economy, science, medicine, and agriculture.” Mukherjee will address the Knesset and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Isaac Herzog, and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein. Mukherjee will be accompanied by the Indian Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, members of parliament and other government officials, and educational and media leaders.

The election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India last year was said to bode well for closer ties between Israel and India. In a meeting last year in New York between Netanyahu and Modi, the first time in more than a decade that leaders of both countries met, Netanyahu said that he believed “the sky is the limit” for ties between the two nations.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon visited India in February amid growing defense ties between the two nations. The chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra visited Israel in May and hailed Israel’s agricultural know-how, saying that it could boost his state’s output.

[Photo: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting / YouTube ]