Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off his first foreign tour since India declared the COVID-19 lockdown in a year ago. He will be in Bangladesh today and tomorrow to attend the celebration of that country’s 50th year of liberation from Pakistan and the centenary year of its founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, Premier Sheikh Hasina’s father. The two countries are also celebrating 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties.

In Dhaka, he was received today by PM Hasina at the airport. Paying tributes at the National Martyr’s Memorial in Savar, PM Modi tweeted: “The courage of those who took part in the Liberation War of Bangladesh motivates many.”

He planted an Arjuna Tree sapling there as a mark of respect for the valorous martyrs of Bangladesh. Later PM Modi met with then fight liberation fighters, also called  and engaged with opposition leaders of the country, discussing a wide gamut of issues pertaining to the two countries’ bilateral relations.

 Earlier, in his departure statement issued yesterday, PM Modi had expressed his happiness over his first foreign visit since the Covid-19 lockdown in India being to a ‘friendly neighbouring country’ with which India shares deep cultural, linguistic and people-to-people ties.

“My visit will not only be an occasion to convey appreciation for Bangladesh’s remarkable economic and developmental strides under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visionary leadership, but also to commit India’s abiding support for these achievements,” PM Modi said in his statement. He had also tweeted yesterday saying that Bangladesh is an important pillar of India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy known as East Pakistan till 1971. 

Recalling the nation’s founder, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, in a write-up for Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star, PM Modi wrote that  had the late leader not been assassinated in 1975, Bangladesh and the region would have evolved along a very different trajectory.