New Delhi, Jun 16 (PTI) Israel is keen on further expansion of its already close cooperation with India in areas of agriculture and water, a senior Israeli diplomat said on Thursday, describing them as the two "most significant pillars" of growing bilateral ties.

Ambassador Eynat Shlein, the head of Mashav, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, made the comments before concluding her seven-day visit to India.

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The Israeli embassy said Shlein's visit was aimed at further strengthening Israel-India strategic partnership and development cooperation in the fields of agriculture and water.

"India is a strong, strategic partner of Israel. The two most significant pillars of our growing relations are cooperation in agriculture and water, which was the focus of my visit to India. These two fields are so important that out of the six resident experts that Mashav posted around the world, two are based in India," she said.

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Shlein said Israel is keen to continue and expand its cooperation with all its partners in India in the two areas as part of an overall aim to enhance the bilateral strategic partnership.

"Currently we have 29 fully-active Indo-Israeli Centers of Excellence in different parts of India, which are benefiting millions of Indian farmers on a daily basis. Thirteen more such centers are in the pipeline," she said.

"Gradually these centers will be expanded into Villages of Excellence in partnership with local state governments, which will further prove beneficial for larger populations," the diplomat said.

During her trip, Shlein visited Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and met with senior government officials and farmers.

In Uttar Pradesh, Shlein met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and held an extensive discussion about enhancing the existing cooperation.

The Israeli embassy said one of the main highlights of the visit was the signing of a joint declaration between Israel and the Haryana government for cooperation in the field of integrated water management and capacity building.

As part of this joint declaration, Mashav will share knowledge, capacity building and Israeli technologies for the development with Haryana in the water management sector.

In Delhi, Shlein held discussions with economic relations officials at the Ministry of External Affairs about continuing dialogues between both nations on development cooperation, the embassy said.

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