Modi arrives in Qatar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived in Qatar on a two-day visit on the second leg of his five-nation tour.

"Namaste Qatar! Its wheels down in Doha as PM Narendra Modi arrives for the second leg of his journey," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

This is the second prime ministerial visit from India to Qatar in eight years after then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2008.

Modi is scheduled to visit an Indian workers' camp later in the day. Of the around 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers.

He will also be hosted for dinner by Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Saturday evening.

Modi flew in from Afghanistan, where earlier on Saturday, he, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, also known as Salma Dam, in the western province of Herat.

On Sunday, he will begin his engagements in Qatar with a meeting with business leaders following which he will hold a restricted meeting with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

Bilateral trade between India and Qatar stands at $10 billion.

"It (Qatar) can also be a large economic partner as it has a large sovereign wealth fund," Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said on Friday ina pre-departure media briefing.

After Qatar, Modi will also visit Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

--IANS

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