Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Photo: Collected
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave here for home this afternoon after attending the oath-taking ceremony of Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India for a third consecutive term.
A special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the prime minister and her entourage members is scheduled to depart from Palam Air Force Station, the VVIP airport in New Delhi, at 5pm (local time).
Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Md. Mustafizur Rahman will see the prime minister off at the airport. The flight is scheduled to land at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka at 8pm (BD time) today.
Sheikh Hasina arrived in New Delhi on Saturday to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet of Modi government at her Indian counterpart's invitation.
During her stay in New Delhi, she held a tete-a-tete (one-to-one meeting) with Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhaban on Sunday evening.
During the meeting, Sheikh Hasina congratulated her Indian counterpart for becoming the prime minister of India for a third consecutive term and invited him to visit Bangladesh at his convenient time.
The two leaders also expressed their hopes to further deepen the existing bilateral relations of Bangladesh-India in future. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was sworn-in led by Narendra Modi on Sunday evening.
Top leaders from Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles also joined the swearing-in ceremony of Modi that witnessed a record presence of over 8,000 dignitaries.
The leaders later attended a banquet hosted by President Smt. Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the same evening. President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe also held a bilateral meeting with the Bangladesh premier at her Place of Residence this morning.
Later, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar paid a call on with the Bangladesh premier at the same venue. Earlier on Sunday morning, Sheikh Hasina met with BJP Senior Leader LK Advani at his New Delhi residence and exchanged pleasantries.
Later in the afternoon, Bhutanese Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay paid a courtesy call on the Bangladesh prime minister at the latter's Place of Residence here.
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 telephone. Sheikh Hasina accepted the invitation.
Modi's BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won the general election with 293 seats while India's opposition, secured 234 seats.
Messenger/Disha
