Tel Aviv, Dec. 1 -- Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) CEO Boaz Levy on Monday said India had been one of the company's strongest partners in defence development and that this cooperation had helped build a long-standing defence partnership between the two countries.

He also affirmed that IAI would support any future decisions taken by New Delhi on defence procurement.

Speaking to ANI, Levy highlighted joint work on unmanned aerial vehicles and noted that several major systems were being developed with India, including the Barak MX. He also said the world's first UAV came from IAI.

"Heron is an IAI product. We were the pioneers of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). The first UAV in the world came out of IAI premises, and we are very proud...