Ly­onch­hen Tsh­er­ing Tob­gay visit to In­dia

Bhutan Times - - Front Page - AN­JANA SUBBA

Ly­onch­hen Tsh­er­ing Tob­gay was on an of­fi­cial visit to In­dia from 10-18 Jan­uary 2015. The Prime Min­is­ter vis­ited Ah­mad­abad in Gu­jarat from 11-13 Jan­uary, New Delhi from 14-15 Jan­uary, Varanasi and Bod­hgaya from 1618 Jan­uary 2015.

The Prime Min­is­ter was ac­com­pa­nied by first lady Aum Tashi Doma, For­eign Min­is­ter Rinzin Dorje, Eco­nomic Af­fairs Min­is­ter Norbu Wangchuk and other se­nior of­fi­cials of the Gov­ern­ment.

While in Ahe­mad­abad, Ly­onch­hen at­tended the Vi­brant Gu­jarat Sum­mit and also vis­ited a num­ber of very suc­cess­ful projects ini­ti­ated by Prime Min­is­ter Shri Modi in Gu­jarat such as the Gu­jarat In­ter­na­tional Fi­nance Tec-City (GIFT), So­lar Park, Kaushal Vard­han Ken­dra (Skill De­vel­op­ment In­sti­tute), Sabar­mati river front, Garima Park and Kids City. Fur­ther, Ly­onch­hen also vis­ited the Bud­dhist sites in Vad­na­gar.

On 11th Jan­uary 2015, Ly­onch­hen Tsh­er­ing Tob­gay ad­dressed the in­au­gu­ral ses­sion of the Vi­brant Gu­jarat Sum­mit along with sev­eral other vis­it­ing dig­ni­taries. The Sum­mit was pre­ceded by a break­fast meet­ing hosted by the Prime Min­is­ter of In­dia Shri Naren­dra Modi for the vis­it­ing dig­ni­taries. Prime Min­is­ter Shri Modi also hosted a lunch for the vis­it­ing dig­ni­taries.

On 10th Jan­uary 2015 af­ter­noon, Ly­onch­hen Tsh­er­ing Tob­gay met Prime Min­is­ter Shri Modi and had widerang­ing dis­cus­sions on bi­lat­eral re­la­tions as well as on re­gional and in­ter­na­tional is­sues of mu­tual in­ter­est and con­cern. The two Prime Min­is­ters ex­pressed sat­is­fac­tion with the ex­ist­ing very close ties of friend­ship and un­der­stand­ing be­tween In­dia and Bhutan and re­it­er­ated their re­solve to fur­ther strengthen their co­op­er­a­tion.

The two Prime Min­is­ters agreed that co­op­er­a­tion in the field of hy­dropower was mu­tu­ally ben­e­fi­cial and a win-win sit­u­a­tion for both coun­tries. They ex­pressed sat­is­fac­tion over the progress of the three on­go­ing HEPs to­tal­ing 2940 MW un­der the in­ter-gov­ern­men­tal model. They re­it­er­ated their com­mit­ment to the 10,000 MW ini­tia­tive and in this con­text to the early im­ple­men­ta­tion of the four JV-model projects, to­tal­ing 2120 MW.

Ly­onch­hen also had a meet­ing with the Chief Min­is­ter of Gu­jarat Smt. Anandiben Pa­tel. They dis­cussed ar­eas of co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Bhutan and Gu­jarat in­clud­ing pro­mo­tion of in­vest­ments from Gu­jarat in Bhutan and other business links.

In New Delhi, Ly­onch­hen called on the Pres­i­dent of In­dia at the Rash­tra­p­ati Bha­van. He had meet­ings with Shri Ra­j­nath Singh, Min­is­ter of Home Af­fairs, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Min­is­ter of Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs, Shri Arun Jait­ley, Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, Shri Manohar Par­rikar, Min­is­ter of De­fence, Shri Piyush Goyal, Min­is­ter of Power, Shri Ajit Do­val, Na­tional Se­cu­rity Ad­vi­sor and Smt. Su­jatha Singh, For­eign Sec­re­tary.

The meet­ings were held in a warm and friendly at­mos­phere, re­flect­ing the spirit of mu­tual trust, co­op­er­a­tion and un­der­stand­ing that char­ac­ter­ize the unique and spe­cial re­la­tions be­tween the two coun­tries.

From 16-18 Jan­uary, Ly­onch­hen vis­ited the holy sites in Varanasi and Bod­hgaya. In Bod­hgaya, Ly­onch­hen was pre­sented a sapling of the Bodhi tree as a gift by the peo­ple of In­dia to the peo­ple of Bhutan dur­ing a very spe­cial year when the Bhutanese peo­ple are cel­e­brat­ing the 60th Birth An­niver­sary of His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan.

The visit of the Prime Min­is­ter to In­dia re­in­forced the tra­di­tion of reg­u­lar vis­its at the high­est lev­els, and ex­ten­sive ex­change of views be­tween close friends. It fur­ther strength­ened the ex­cel­lent bi­lat­eral re­la­tions be­tween In­dia and Bhutan.

The Prime Min­is­ter and the del­e­ga­tion are ex­pected to ar­rive in the king­dom this af­ter­noon.

Spir­i­tual Visit: Ly­onch­hen vis­ited the Chaukhandi Stupa, Shameka Stupa, Mu­la­gand­hakuti Vi­hara Tem­ple and Bod­hivrik­sha ( The Bodhi Tree) in Varanasi, In­dia. Ly­onch­hen also vis­ited Kashi Vishwanath Tem­ple and wit­nessed the Evening Aarti at Dashash­wamedh Ghat.

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