Naftali took office in June, following Benjamin Netanyahu who was in power for 12 years and had close ties with Putin.

Russian state television aired footage of the pair meeting ahead of the talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

Putin said the two countries have “unique” ties and hoped for “continuity” of the “trusting relationship” he developed with Israel’s previous government.

Bennett told Putin that Israel views him as “a true friend of the Jewish people” and praised the Soviet war effort in fighting Nazi Germany.

He said the pair will discuss the “situation in Syria and our efforts to prevent a breakthrough in Iran’s military nuclear program”.

As he left for Sochi, Bennett said Israel’s relations with Moscow are an “important element” of the country’s foreign policy.

This was in part due, he said, “to the million Russian speakers in Israel, who constitute a bridge between the two countries”.

The visit may be one of Putin’s last face-to-face meetings with a foreign leader before Russia’s new Covid restrictions come into force next week.

The Kremlin has said the 69-year-old will scrap in-person meetings during a nationwide week-long holiday starting October 30 designed to curb record virus deaths.

Last week, Bennett’s office said the pair will discuss Iran’s nuclear programme.

Moscow is one of the signatories to a 2015 deal that saw sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for limits to its nuclear capability.

Former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions, leading Tehran to gradually roll back its commitments under the agreement.

Bennett told the United Nations General Assembly last month that Israel “will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

Putin had congratulated Bennett after he was sworn in and said that Russian-Israeli cooperation would help strengthen “peace, security and stability in the Middle East.”

Naftali Bennett was sworn in on Sunday, June 13, after a new coalition government unseated longtime Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett, 49, was a former chief of staff to Netanyahu

The newly elected prime minister was appointed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in a 60-59 vote, with one minister abstaining.

Shortly after the votes were counted, the now former-Prime Minister Netanyahu approached his opponent and the two shook hands.

He later took to Twitter to pen a message to his supporters, vowing to return.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid and his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, announced they had reached an announcement shortly before a Wednesday, June 2 midnight deadline and prevented what could have been Israel’s fifth consecutive election in just over two years.

Lapid said “This government will work for all the citizens of Israel, those that voted for it and those that didn’t. It will do everything to unite Israeli society,”

The agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) in a vote that is expected to take place early next week.

If it goes through, Lapid and his coalition partner will end Netanyahu’s record-setting12-year rule.

Netanyahu, desperate to remain in office while he fights corruption charges, is expected to do everything possible in the coming days to prevent the new coalition from taking power.

The deal comes at a political time for Israel, which fought an 11-day war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last month while also experiencing mob violence between Jews and Arabs in cities across Israel.

Under the coalition agreement, Lapid and Bennett will split the job of prime minister i.e rotate the prime minister roles between two consecutive terms.

Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu, serves the first two years, while Lapid serves the final two years.

The historic deal also includes a small Islamist party, the United Arab List, which would make it the first Arab party ever to be part of a governing coalition.

“This is the first time an Arab party is a partner in the formation of a government,” said the party’s leader, Mansour Abbas. “This agreement has a lot of things for the benefit of Arab society, and Israeli society in general.”

Among the concessions secured by Abbas were agreements for legal recognition of Bedouin villages in southern Israel, an economic plan for investing 30 billion shekels ($9.2 billion) in Arab towns and cities, and a five-year plan for combating violent crime in Arab communities, according to Army Radio.

In a show of power, Netanyahu is attempting to put pressure on hard-liners in the emerging coalition to defect and join his religious and nationalist party.

Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, may also use his influence to delay the required parliamentary vote.

Netanyahu has been top of Israeli politics over the past three decades, first serving as prime minister since 2009 in addition to an earlier term in the late 1990s.

His major achievements include last year’s groundbreaking diplomatic agreements with four Arab countries and the defence of Israel from Hamas and Iran.

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