BIMSTEC leaders invited to PM Modi's swearing-in on May 30

New Delhi: Keeping in line with neighbourhood policy first, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited all heads of government from neighbouring BIMSTEC countries to attend his swearing in ceremony which will be held on May 30.

Member countries of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, also known as BIMSTEC, include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand besides India.

However, reports said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, for a second time, will miss her Indian counterpart's swearing-in as she will be on a four-nation foreign visit from Tuesday. In her place, president Abdul Hamid and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq will attend the ceremony.

The spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs said that apart from BIMSTEC countries, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, who is the current Chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Prime Minister of Mauritius, who was the Chief Guest at this year's Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, have also been invited.

As Pakistan is not a member of BIMSTEC countries no question of inviting them arises, says an official.

An emphatic second term win for Modi has created a lot of enthusiasm within the leadership of South Asia and beyond put Ministry of External Affairs in a tizzy to fix a schedule for the visiting dignitaries from abroad.

As Modi always gives priority for his neighbourhood policies some of the heads of the government want to have a "goodwill" visit to India. Latest was Prime Minister Sheik Hasina of Bangladesh. She will be travelling to four nations from Tuesday and while coming back to Dhaka from Finland she wants to do a stopover at New Delhi on 8th June.

The MEA is still working hard to schedule PM Hasina's meeting with Indian PM. PM's busy schedule includes in the same month two important multilateral summit meeting, namely Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and G-20 later in this month.

There is also reports that PM Modi will undertake his first foreign visit to the Maldives on 8th and 9th June. South Block is working hard to find a slot for meeting between the two PMs.

Sources said they are neither rejecting nor accepting the proposal from Dhaka. Dates and time schedule are being worked out. Colombo has already announced that President Matripala Sirisena wants to join swearing in ceremony of Modi.

Sources also told that South Block is now busy for preparing for upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit to be held at Bishkek of Kyrgyzstan on 13-14th June. In that summit, PM Modi will have a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping on the sidelines. Pakistan PM Imran Khan will also be present.

Neither India nor Pakistan sought any possible meeting but it will be under media attention how these two Premieres do in the Summit. Possibility of a courtesy meeting is not ruled out, says one Pakistani diplomat.

Immediately after SCO, the Prime Minister will visit Osaka of Japan to attend G-20 summit where he would meet probably US President Donald Trump. There are a lot of issues to be discussed and this will be the first meeting after Modi reelected for the second term. Following the results, most of the head of the state and government had telephonic talks with PM Modi.

South Block is working hard to prepare background notes and listing a host of issues to be discussed. In the last G-20 meeting held in Argentina, India gave a proposal to host G-20 in India in 2022, the year coincides with the 75th years of India's Independence. Therefore, from this G-20 Summit, a countdown for 2022 G-20 Summit would begin.