KATHMANDU: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is arriving in Lumbini on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti today.
During his visit, Indian PM Modi will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The Indian PM is scheduled to arrive in Lumbini at 10:40 am on an Indian Air Force helicopter.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, his spouse Arzu Rana Deuba, members of the Council of Ministers, Lumbini Province Chief Minister Kul Prasad KC, and Chargé d’ affairs Namgya C. Khampa of the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu will welcome Prime Minister Modi at a helipad built near the Lumbini International Buddhist Meditation Center and Assembly Hall.
Upon arrival, he will pray at Mayadevi temple at 11 am and participate in Bhumi Pooja at 11:30.
After that, he will hold meetings with PM Deuba and Foreign Minister Dr. Narayan Khadka from 12:20 to 12:40 pm. He will also interact with various delegations afterward.
At 1:30, PM Deuba will host lunch for the Indian Prime Minister. The lunch will be followed by PM Modi’s meeting with eminent personalities and dignitaries.
Modi is scheduled to take part in Buddha Jayanti celebrations from 3:30 pm onwards and scheduled to fly back to Delhi at around 5 pm.
His entourage will include India’s national security advisor Ajit Doval, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, joint-secretaries Arindam Bagchi and Anurag Srivastava (Ministry of External Affairs) and joint-secretary Rudra Gaurav (Prime Minister’s Office), among others.
Five MoUs to be signed between Nepal and India
On the occasion, five different agreements are to be signed between Nepal and India in presence of prime ministers of the two countries to deepen the century-old educational and cultural ties, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Indian Educational and Cultural Foundation will sign one Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) each with Lumbini Buddhist University and Tribhuvan University and three MoUs with Kathmandu University.
Lumbini Buddhist University and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Tribhuvan University Nepal and Center for Asian Studies (CNAS) and ICCR, Kathmandu University and ICCR, the KU and the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai are scheduled to sign two other MoUs.
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