KATHMANDU: Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will attend the swearing-in ceremony of his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on Thursday, his press advisor said Wednesday.
India invited leaders of the BIMSTEC countries as well as Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth for Modi's swearing-in. Besides India, BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.
In the first back-to-back majority for a single party in over three decades, the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 out of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats. "Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli will be paying an official visit to India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of India's Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi," Press Advisor of Oil, Kundan Aryal told PTI.
Oli, accompanied by his spouse and some high ranking officials, will leave Kathmandu for New Delhi on Thursday. During his visit, Oli will meet his Indian counterpart and discuss bilateral relations, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2014, when Modi was elected as India's Prime Minister for the first time, the then Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala attended his swearing-in ceremony, along with heads of states of other member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Oli is scheduled to return home on May 31, Aryal said.