A Correspondent:
New Delhi: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday reached here to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the prime minister for a third consecutive term.
She is visiting Indian capital to join the oath-taking ceremony at her Indian counterpart’s invitation.
A special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the prime minister and her entourage members landed at the Palam Air Force Station, the VVIP airport, here at 11:51 am (local time).
Earlier, the flight departed from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 10:15 am.
The prime minister was received by Secretary (CPV and OIA) of Indian External Affairs Ministry Muk-tesh Pardeshi, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Vermaa,and Bangladesh High Commis-sioner 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 7:20pm on Sunday.
Later, she will attend the state dinner hosted by the Indian president.
The Bangladesh premier will also attend various programmes in New Delhi on Sunday.
She will arrive at the Palam Air Force Station at 5pm on Monday (New Delhi time) to leave the Indian capital and is scheduled to reach Dhaka at 8pm (BD time) the same day.
Earlier on Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited his Bangladesh counterpart to at-tend the swearing-in ceremony of his government during a conversation over telephone. Sheikh Hasina accepted the invitation.
Modi is going to 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.
World leaders including Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Da-hal are set to attend the function, which will witness a record presence of over 8,000 dignitaries.
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 Demo-cratic 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, ac-cording 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 dec-ade,” 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 towards achieving Viksit Bharat 2047 and Smart Bangladesh 2041.
