President leaves for India to attend Modi’s swearing-in ceremony

President Maithripala Sirisena has left for India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India.

The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to be held in New Delhi today (30).

President Sirisena’s attendance at Modi’s swearing-in ceremony is expected to send out a strong message of Sri Lanka being keen on keeping its momentum in ties with India.

A host of international leaders will be attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony on Thursday at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Leaders of SAARC nations like Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid and Bhutan’s prime minister Lotay Tshering have confirmed their participation at the event.

Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will also attend the glittering ceremony.

President of Myanmar U Win Myint will also be present as PM Modi and his Cabinet are sworn in on May 30.

From Thailand, its Special Envoy Grisada Boonrach will represent the country at the ceremony.

New Delhi had earlier issued invitations to 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 PM Modi’s swearing-in.

In the first back-to-back majority for a single party in over three decades, PM Modi-led BJP won 303 out of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats.

Following the election victory, President Sirisena had tweeted: “It was a pleasure to congratulate Prime Minister Modi (@narendramodi) over the phone a while ago. I shared thoughts that Sri Lanka too celebrates along with the world’s largest democracy, on his re-election. We look forward to work together to further develop our bilateral ties.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan envoy Austin Fernando speaking to WION on the re-election and oath taking said, “We must remember that we are not only friends and neighbours, but relations too. Our mutual relations will certainly benefit both countries also in the future under PM Narendra Modi’s second tenure of office”

Before the oath-taking ceremony, PM Modi will pay homage to father of nation Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, the samadhi of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Atal Samadhi & the National War Memorial in front of India Gate, before he takes oath at Rashtrapati Bhawan at 7 PM.

-With inputs from agencies