Israeli envoys meet in bangkok to mull asia policy

Aaron Abramovich, the director-general of Israel's foreign ministry, met his country's representatives from 16 countries, including Australia, last week in a move aimed at deepening relations with the continent.

"Our Foreign Ministry did an assessment and we came to the conclusion that we have to put more efforts towards boosting our ties with Asian countries," he told The Nation.

"We decided to have a meeting with all our ambassadors and envoys to find out what direction we should take. We wanted to hear their viewpoint. They were all very enthusiastic. We also decided to take this opportunity to update our representatives about Iran, the peace process with the Palestinians, Syria, Lebanon and related issues."

It was the first joint meeting of Israel's Asian envoys in 13 years.

Abramovich said boosting economic and trade relations figured high on the agenda.

Trade between Israel and the Asian countries in 2008 as at the end of October amounted to US$22 billion (Bt777 billion), of which Thai-Israeli bilateral trade accounted for about US$1 billion.

Agricultural and hi-tech industries are the areas where Israel is exploring opportunities.

"We have certain unique areas of expertise, especially in agriculture and irrigation," Abramovich said. "We've developed this expertise because of our geographical features. We're willing to share our knowledge in these areas with Asian countries who are facing the same problems that we faced.

"We have also a very developed and successful hi-tech industry and we would like to build relations with many Asian countries in that area to share the knowledge and to develop trade based on that."

Israel has already been involved in agricultural projects in some Asian countries, especially farm projects in China.

"We have developed a dairy farm in China, which was very successful, and now we're planning another. We're also planning something similar in Vietnam because they have shown interest," he said.

Abramovich said some of these ventures were being undertaken on a voluntary basis in the hope that if it becomes a success they can market it.

"We are also looking at ways of facilitating investment both ways," he said. Israel's ambassador in Thailand, Yael Rubinstein, said there had been a boom in trade relations between the two countries in the last three years, with a more than 30-per-cent jump.

Rubinstein said she had suggested that Israel should capitalise on Thailand chairing Asean and deepen its trade and relations with the regional grouping.

"We'll shortly be drawing up a plan on the areas where Thai-Israeli trade ties could have scope for growth," she said. Although traditionally agriculture, food, textiles and hi-tech areas have been the major areas of trade, Rubinstein said she saw major scope for hi-tech medical equipment, in which Israel is a major player.