Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli will participate in the swearing-in ceremony of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday.
"Yes, he is going. He will leave on Thursday and return back on Friday after participating in the swearing-in ceremony," Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali confirmed with Setopati. "The written invitation arrived Monday evening. The delegation to accompany PM has yet to be decided."
Modi, who had invited heads of state/government of the SAARC countries for swearing-in ceremony for the first term, has invited BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries--that include Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Srilanka, Thailand and Bhutan—this time.
President of Kyrgyzstan and prime minister of Mauritius have also been invited, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. But neighbor Pakistan has not been invited. The then Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif had attended the swearing-in of Modi five years back.
Pakistani PM Imran Khan had publicly stated that a strong and nationalist Indian government can better negotiate for good relation with Pakistan endorsing Modi for the second term before the Indian election. Khan had even called Modi after the latter won the second term and stated that he is ready to work with Modi to improve Pakistan-India relation.
India-Pakistan relation has been strained since the Pulwama attack on February 14 with the two nuclear-armed neighbors resorting to some aerial skirmishes in the aftermath.
