Jakarta: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here to a ceremonial welcome on the first leg of three-nation tour of Southeast Asia that will also see him visiting Malaysia and Singapore.
Styating that reinvigorating ties with a maritime neighbour, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted that Modi was accorded a ceremonial welcome on his first ever visit to Indonesia.
“India and Indonesia share millennia old contacts driven by merchants and religious figures sailing across the Indian Ocean during monsoon,” Raveesh Kumar said.
In a pre-departure statement in New Delhi on Monday, Modi said he was “confident that my visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore will provide a further boost to our Act East Policy and enhance our relations and engagements with all the three countries”.
Modi will hold a bilateral summit with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on May 30. He will also address members of the Indian community in Indonesia.
On May 31, Modi will make a brief stopover in Malaysia on his way from Indonesia to Singapore to meet newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir, who governed for more than two decades became, at the age of 92, the world’s oldest elected leader earlier thius month.
On June 1, Modi will call on Singapore President Halimah Yacob and then hold a summit with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Later in the evening, he will deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to do so in the Track I annual inter-governmental security forum.
—IANS