Cranes are seen at the port of the northern Israeli city of Haifa, April 23, 2013. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun / File.

Touting Israel’s economic progress, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called his country a “rising global force.”

“Israeli exports broke a record in 2018 and they are expected to reach $110 billion,” Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “This is an 8% increase over 2017, an immense increase.”

“This is the result of the strategy that I have discussed many times,” he added. “It is a strategy of opening new markets — and we have opened them.”

“The export of goods to China has risen by 56%,” Netanyahu noted. “The export of goods and services to Japan has risen by 50%. Exports to India and Latin America have risen by 27%. These are all new markets that we are opening.”

“This has increased exports and the GNP, brings money into state coffers, creates jobs and raises Israeli citizens’ wages,” he went on to say. “This is very important news and a very great change.”

The cabinet meeting was the first since Netanyahu returned to Israel from Brazil, where he attended the inauguration of President Jair Bolsonaro last Tuesday.

“We have a new ally here, and whoever needs additional proof of Israel’s rising status in the world simply needs to look at what is happening in Brazil,” Netanyahu said on Sunday. “They love us and admire Israel. I mean not only the president, who is very impressive, and different from the public and media image that they are creating for him. One needs to understand that the Brazilian people, the masses in Brazil, admire Israel and want to be close to us.”

“Therefore,” he stated, “we have opened a very large market here and there is much more work that needs to be done. We will discuss joint delegations with them and we will open this huge market to Israeli companies, which will increase our national revenues.”