External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday discussed expanding academic research and technology collaboration between India and Israel to drive the future of the bilateral ties during his meeting with presidents and senior leadership of various Israeli universities.

Jaishankar, who arrived here on Sunday, is on a five-day visit to Israel as part of India’s efforts to further enrich the strategic ties besides exploring new areas of bilateral collaboration. It is Jaishankar’s first visit to the country as the external affairs minister.

“Expanding our academic research and technology collaboration through meetings with University Presidents and senior leadership in Tel Aviv today,” Jaishankar tweeted, sharing a series of photographs of the meeting.

He also tagged several Israeli institutions, including Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Technion Israel (Israel Institute of Technology) and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in his tweet.

“Together our collaboration will drive the India-Israel partnership in the coming years,” Jaishankar added.

On Wednesday, Jaishankar called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and held wide-ranging discussions with them on bilateral ties and on regional and global issues.

India and Israel elevated bilateral relations to a strategic partnership during the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel in July 2017.

Since then, the relationship between the two countries has focused on expanding knowledge-based partnership, which includes collaboration in innovation and research, including boosting the ‘Make in India’ initiative.