JOIN USBIMSTEC leaders reach Delhi for Modi's swearing-in
The leaders of five BIMSTEC nations were at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday to witness Narendra Modi being sworn-in for his second time as the country's prime minister.
Bangladesh President Mohammed Abdul Hamid, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, President U Win Myint of Myanmar; Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli of Nepal and Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering attended the ceremony.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha sent a special envoy to attend the ceremony.
Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth of Mauritius and President of Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbay Jeenbekov, who holds the chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, also attended the ceremony.
Modi will hold brief bilateral meetings with the visiting presidents and prime ministers on Friday.
New Delhi had invited the leaders of the BIMSTEC nations for the swearing-in ceremony to drive home the point that “Neighbourhood First” would continue to be the cornerstone of the Modi government's foreign policy, even in its second term.
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The government, however, did not invite Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to the swearing-in ceremony, ostensibly in view of the tension between New Delhi and Islamabad over the February 14 killing of over 40 paramilitary soldiers by a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir and the retaliatory bombing by Indian Air Force on a camp of the terror outfit inside the neighbouring country.
Khan's predecessor Nawaz Sharif had attended Modi's first swearing-in ceremony on May 26, 2014— along with the leaders of other SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations. He, like all other SAARC leaders, had a bilateral meeting with Modi the next day that year too.
The BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) comprises seven littoral and landlocked countries dependent on Bay of Bengal for maritime purposes— India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand and Nepal.
With most of the initiatives for regional connectivity and counter-terror cooperation within the SAARC being blocked by Islamabad, New Delhi has been trying over the past three years to rejuvenate and promote the BIMSTEC as an alternative forum to steer regional cooperation.