NEW DELHI: Six months after his historic visit to Israel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave today on a three-nation tour that will take him to Palestine on a short, but hugely symbolic visit before traveling to United Arab Emirates and Oman. He will wrap up the tour on Monday. "This will be the first ever Prime Ministerial visit to Palestine from India," PM Modi said in a statement about the visit that New Delhi has described as "historic".
From New Delhi, PM Modi will travel to Jordanian capital Amman and take a chopper ride to reach the Palestinian city of Ramallah a little over 100 km away. The city in the West Bank, which hosts the Palestinian Authority's presidential headquarters, also serves as its de facto capital. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who met PM Modi in Delhi last year, has welcomed the Indian leader in what he has described as "a significant" visit by a "grand guest".
But before PM Modi sits down for formal discussions with President Abbas, the Indian Prime Minister will lay a wreath at the memorial for Yasser Arafat, who headed the Palestine Liberation Organization and later also headed the Palestinian National Authority till his death in 2004.