GRAPHICS

Israel Seeks Stronger Ties to East Africa

Jul 14, 2016 | 14:52 GMT

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Israel Seeks Stronger Ties to East Africa

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his four-country trip to East Africa in Uganda on July 4 before heading to Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. It was the first visit by a sitting Israeli prime minister to the region since 1987. In a bid to bolster Israeli-East African ties, the prime minister held talks with his counterparts on increasing cooperation on security and economic matters. Netanyahu came prepared with a modest package (reportedly worth around $13 million) to boost relations with the region. The money will provide for Israeli economic attaches in East Africa and for the creation of centers by Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation in the four nations. The small amount of Israeli aid and foreign investment for East Africa relative to funding provided by the European Union, China, the United Kingdom and the United States means that Israel's main influence there will come in niche areas such as security and agriculture.

Significantly, an 80-person delegation of Israeli business leaders representing more than 50 companies accompanied Netanyahu. The contingent included officials from one of the country's chief producers of irrigation systems, a field in which Israel is a world leader, in an attempt to capitalize on "water diplomacy" in East Africa, where governments desperately need to improve agricultural yields. But more important to Israel than drumming up agricultural business in East Africa is boosting its security industry and ensuring its own national security. As a leader in physical and cyber security, the country is capable of providing technical expertise to East African states seeking to improve counterterrorism abilities.

Israel, encircled by Arab countries largely hostile to it since its creation, sees East Africa as an important source of potential allies just beyond the Middle East. It also wants to block Iran from using the Greater Horn of Africa region as a land route for weapons destined for Gaza militants, making the region a key forum for the Israeli-Iranian shadow struggle. Ties with Ethiopia, Kenya and other East African countries give Israeli intelligence officials cover to better monitor Sudan, a previous target of Israeli operations aimed at blocking Iran from supplying Gaza militants with arms. Islamic militants in East Africa, be they members of al Qaeda, the Islamic State or Somalia's al Shabaab, also threaten Israeli diplomatic and business interests in the region. So though any new business and security initiatives from this trip will be relatively small by global standards, they will be significant to the Israelis and East Africans themselves.