Bennett will become the first Israeli minister to pay an official visit to Bahrain today.

The trip has been announced by surprise by his office hours before moving to Manama

MADRID, Feb. 14 (Royals Blue) –

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will begin a visit to Bahrain on Monday in which he will become the country’s first head of government to travel to the country, following the agreement signed in 2020 to normalize bilateral relations.

Bennett’s office has indicated in a statement published on its website that this “historic” visit will take place at the invitation of the Prime Minister and Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad al Khalifa, weeks after the one made by the Minister of Defense, Benjamin Gantz.

Bennett’s agenda includes meetings with the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, and with the Prime Minister himself, with whom he met in November in Glasgow as part of the United Nations climate conference.

“The leaders will discuss additional ways to strengthen bilateral ties,” Israel’s prime minister’s office said, adding that Bennett and the Bahraini crown prince “will also discuss the importance of peace, progress and prosperity in the region.” and especially to advance diplomatic and economic affairs, with an emphasis on technology and innovation.

Finally, he stressed that Bennett will also participate in meetings with the Ministers of Finance, Industry and Transport of Bahrain, in addition to holding a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community in the country.

Bennett visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December, another of the signatory countries of the so-called ‘Abraham Agreements’. Asimosmo Gantz visited Bahrain in January, where he signed a Defense-level memorandum of understanding, the first of its kind between Israel and a Persian Gulf country.

For his part, the Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, had become in September 2021 the first Israeli minister to travel to the country since the normalization of relations, a visit in which he inaugurated the Israeli Embassy in the capital of Bahrain, Manama.