PM Modi congratulates President Mukherjee on being awarded highest honour of Cote D'Ivoirie

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday congratulated President Pranab Mukherjee on being conferred the Grande Croix Commandeur in National Merit Order, highest national award of Cote d'Ivoire

"Congratulations to Rashtrapatiji on being conferred Grande Croix Commandeur in National Merit Order, highest national award of Cote d'Ivoire," the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

President Mukherjee was bestowed with the honour from the President of Cote d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara yesterday.

Speaking after the occasion, he said that he was accepting it with humility on behalf of the one billion plus Indians.

In his speech at the banquet, the President who is on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Africa, said it is rightly believed that the mutual goodwill between India and Cote D'Ivoirie is inversely proportional to the geographical distance separating the two countries, longstanding friendship and fruitful co-operation has made it irrelevant.

"I feel greatly honoured, Excellency, by your gesture of conferring on me the National Order of the Republic of Cote D'Ivoirie. I consider it to be emblematic of the long standing mutual friendship between the peoples of our two countries," he said.