President M Abdul Hamid will leave Dhaka for India on Wednesday to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India.
“A VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited carrying the president and his entourage will take off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 5:30pm,” President Press Secretary M Joynal Abedin said, reports BSS.
President Abdul Hamid will return home on Friday by a VVIP flight, the press secretary added.
During the three-day visit, President Abdul Hamid will also pay a courtesy call on his Indian counterpart Ram Nath Kovind apart from joining Modi’s oath-taking ceremony, Joynal said.
Narendra Modi begins his second term as prime minister on Thursday, after a convincing election victory which political analysts say was helped by his handling of that tension with Pakistan.
Modi has invited leaders from the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) bloc to his swearing-in ceremony on May 30, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs announced on Monday.
BIMSTEC is a regional group comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
The Ministry of External Affairs said the invitations are “in line with government’s focus on its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy”. President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbay Jeenbekov and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth have also been invited, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar added.
