The newly accredited Israeli ambassador to Seychelles, Michael Lotem, said he has held discussions on concrete areas of cooperation between the two countries and these include business, health and tourism.

Mr Lotem was speaking to the media after presenting his credentials to President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House yesterday morning.

He said presently Seychelles and Israel have a strong cooperation in tourism, which has been enhanced with direct flights between the two countries and during his talks with President Ramkalawan they talked about how to further consolidate cooperation in that area.

“The emphasis was on how to create ideas that can be carried out in tourism of course,” he said.

Other than tourism the two also talked about agriculture, an area which he said had huge potentials and which needs to be explored.

“We agreed that agriculture these days does not depend on space, does not depend on soil, does not depend on water, and does not depend on weather. It stands alone. It is a sector that with the right technology it can produce as much as you choose to produce. So that’s definitely something that we should be looking into,” said Mr Lotem.

Following his talk with President Ramkalawan, the new Israeli ambassador to Seychelles signed the guest book and also held a brief talk with Vice-President Ahmed Afif, where he further elaborated on the points raised with the president.

The relations between the State of Israel and the Republic of Seychelles were officially established in 1992.

Mr Lotem was accompanied by honorary consul of the State of Israel, Robert Stravens, Seychelles director general for Bilateral Affairs, Lindy Ernesta, Third Secretary and Desk Officer for the State of Israel Jean-Luc Louise, Israeli representatives Eytan Hatzor and Isaac Eliahu LIOR.

Source: Seychelles Nation