IDF chief Gantz set to make historic visit to China

Israel informs US of the trip, which was approved by the Defense Ministry; ban on arms sales to China still in place.

By YAAKOV KATZ
IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz 390 (R) (photo credit: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters)
IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz 390 (R)
(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz will make a historic visit to Beijing next week for high-level talks with the Chinese defense establishment.
Gantz will leave Israel on Saturday night. He will be the guest of Gen. Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, who visited Israel last August. It was the first time that a Chinese military chief visited the country.
During the trip, Gantz will meet with senior Chinese military officers and visit a number of bases. The visit was approved by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israel has also updated the United States.
Last June, Barak visited China in what was the first visit of an Israeli defense minister to the country in a decade.
Since 2010, Israel has significantly upgraded its attacked. It was known but it did not turn into a public discussion and that should be the case here as well,” he said.
During the interview, Nehushtan warned that Israel’s air superiority was increasingly undermined by the proliferation of sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems throughout the region – in Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.
“The IAF needs to be ready to fly in places where there is a threat to its superiority,” he said “This is the case already now and therefore when we approach a front like Lebanon or Gaza we will first look at the intelligence, then study the threats and then think about the best way to carry out our missions.”