Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen’s India visit that began on Tuesday was eclipsed by airstrikes in Gaza, forcing him to cut short the three-day tour and leave soon after his meetings in Delhi.

The first official word from him upon arrival in the national capital was an announcement of his decision to head home after the Delhi leg of the visit. He was also scheduled to visit Agra and Mumbai.

“I landed a short time ago in New Delhi, the capital of India, and immediately upon landing I received a security update. In light of the events in Israel, I decided to cut short the diplomatic visit to India and return to Israel after my meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that will take place today,” Cohen tweeted.

Still, he retained most of his Delhi engagements that included delegation-level meetings with his counterpart S. Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh, an India-Israel business meet for which a 36-member delegation of Israeli businesspersons had accompanied him, and a visit to the Teen Murti Haifa Chowk.

The visit came on the heels of a meeting in Riyadh last weekend between India, the US, the UAE and Saudi Arabia where, according to American website Axios, a joint infrastructure project to connect the Gulf countries with a rail network linked to India via shipping lanes was discussed as a counter to China’s infrastructure network. Cohen brought this up during his visit to India.

Addressing the India-Israel Business Forum, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, he said Tel Aviv’s vision was that Israel, the Abraham Accord countries and India become the gate of the east to the west.

“Trade, which will come from India, will go to Saudi Arabia and then by train till Haifa Port. And, from there to markets in Europe,” Cohen said. The original Abraham Accord countries are the UAE and Israel, after which Tel Aviv signed a separate agreement under the same rubric with Bahrain.

Cohen said he would bring up the India-Israel Free Trade Agreement when he meets the Prime Minister.