Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his first official visit to Palestine and his fifth to the Gulf and West Asian region since 2015. (Photo: ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Palestine on Saturday for a bilateral visit as part of his three-nation trip to the West Asian region including the UAE and Oman. The visit assumes significance as it comes a month after PM Modi hosted his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in New Delhi.
Here are ten things to know about PM Modi’s trip to Palestine:
1. This is PM Modi’s first official visit to Palestine, the first for any Indian prime minister as well. He was received by President Mahmoud Abbas in a ceremonial welcome in the compound of the Palestinian presidential headquarters (Al-Muqata’a).
2. PM Modi’s first engagement after arriving in Ramallah was to lay a wreath today morning at the mausoleum of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
3. The prime minister was accompanied by his Palestinian counterpart Rami Hamdallah for the ceremony. The mausoleum, located next to the presidential headquarters, was opened to the public on November 10, 2007.
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4. PM Modi will then undertake a short tour with PM Hamdallah of the Yasser Arafat Museum, located next to the mausoleum.
5. PM Modi will hold meetings and exchange agreements with Palestinian ministers in Ramallah in the West Bank.
6. PM Modi reached Jordan on Friday which was his transit point to Palestine. PM Modi also expressed his gratitude to Jordan’s King Abdullah II for facilitating the transit of the Indian delegation.0
7. This is PM Modi’s fifth visit to the Gulf and the West Asian Region since 2015. PM Modi had said in a post on his Facebook that he looked forward to strengthen India’s growing and important ties with West Asia and the Gulf region.
8. PM Modi will visit UAE and then end his trip in Muscat, Oman on Sunday. He will return to Delhi the following day.
9. Prior to this visit, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and former president Pranab Mukherjee had also visited Palestine in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
10. Stressing the significance of improving ties in the region, PM Modi had said that there were over nine million Indians working in the Gulf and that the Indian diaspora was a bridge of friendship between India and the Gulf states.