Najib begins official visit to India

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak arrived here yesterday to begin his six- day official visit to India which will also take him to New Delhi and Jaipur.

The special aircraft carrying the prime minister and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor landed at the Chennai International Airport at about 1.50pm local time (4.25pm Malaysian time).

On hand to welcome the Malaysian delegation were High Commissioner of Malaysia to India Datuk Hidayat Abdul Hamid, Malaysia’s Consul-General in Chennai, Ahmad Fajarazam Abdul Jalil and Indian Public Protocol Principal Secretary, Shiv Das Meena.

The prime minister and wife were later received at the ITC Grand Chola Hotel in downtown Chennai, by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa, Malaysian Special Envoy on Infrastructure to India and South Asia Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk M.Saravanan, Education Deputy Minister Datuk P.Kamalanathan, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Senator Datuk Seri S K Devamany and SecretaryGeneral of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Datuk Ramlan Ibrahim.

Najib’s official visit to India from March 30 to Apr 4 is at the invitation of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The visit, which aimed to broaden and deepen the longstanding cooperation between the two nations is also very significant as Malaysia and India marked the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations this year. — Bernama