PM to attend Modi's swearing-in ceremony Sunday evening
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will attend the oath-taking ceremony of Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India for a third consecutive term on Sunday evening.
Top leaders from Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles are also expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Modi.
The event will witness a record presence of over 8,000 dignitaries.
The leaders will also attend a banquet hosted by President Smt. Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the same evening.
Marking the oath-taking ceremony, New Delhi has been put under a stringent multi-layered security measure aimed at ensuring safety in and out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan during the event.
Earlier, a special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the Bangladesh premier and her entourage members landed at the Palam Air Force Station, the VVIP airport, in New Delhi at 11:51 am (local time) on Saturday.
The Prime Minister was received by the Secretary (CPV and OIA) of the Indian External Affairs Ministry, Muktesh Pardeshi, the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, and the Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, Md Mustafizur Rahman, at the Palam airport.
During her stay in New Delhi, Sheikh Hasina will hold a tete-a-tete (one-to-one meeting) with Narendra Modi after joining the oath-taking ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhaban at 7.20 pm tomorrow.
Later, she will attend the state dinner hosted by the Indian president.
Sheikh Hasina joined a dinner hosted by the Bangladesh High Commissioner to India at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi this evening.
Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to leave New Delhi for Dhaka at 5 pm (New Delhi time) on Monday and to reach Dhaka at 8 pm (BD time) the same day.
Earlier on Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited his Bangladesh counterpart to attend the swearing-in ceremony of his government during a conversation over the telephone. Sheikh Hasina accepted the invitation.
Modi will take oath on June 9 as the BJP-led NDA won 293 seats while the opposition INDIA bloc secured 234 seats in the 18th Lok Sabha elections.
The Bangladesh prime minister was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Modi, reflecting the warmth and personal rapport between the two leaders.
Earlier, Sheikh Hasina congratulated Narendra Modi on the resounding victory of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha election.
"As the leader of the largest democracy in the world, you carry the hopes and aspirations of the people of India," she said.
Modi received a congratulatory telephone call from Sheikh Hasina for the victory of BJP-led NDA, according to the Press Information Bureau of India.
Modi thanked Sheikh Hasina for her warm wishes following his election victory.
"India and Bangladesh share historic relations, which have seen unprecedented growth in the last decade," Modi said.
In a message shared on X, Modi said he looks forward to working together to further strengthen the people-centric partnership between Bangladesh and India.
The two leaders pledged to continue working together to further deepen the historic and close ties under the renewed mandate toward achieving Viksit Bharat 2047 and Smart Bangladesh 2041.
Source: BSS