Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk arrived in Guwahati on a state visit to India on Friday. King Wangchuk, accompanied by his family members and senior Bhutanese government officials, touched down at Guwahati’s Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport.
Welcoming the Bhutanese monarch and his entourage at the airport were Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, along with ministers Ranoj Pegu and Ranjit Kumar Dass, as well as various other government officials and dignitaries.
During his trip in Assam, King Wangchuk, alongside his wife Queen Pema Jetsun and their two sons, visited the revered Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati.
A special dinner in honor of the Bhutanese king and his accompanying party will be hosted by Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria at the Raj Bhawan.
Furthermore, Chief Minister Sarma is slated to pay a courtesy call to the Bhutanese king at the Radisson Blu Hotel, where the royal delegation will be residing during their stay in Assam.
Over the course of his week-long visit, King Wangchuk is set to hold meetings with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and other senior officials of the Central government. The Bhutanese king’s state visit will conclude on November 10.
In addition to Assam, the Bhutanese delegation will also visit Maharashtra during this visit.
Notably, prior to the king’s arrival, Chief Minister Sarma held discussions with Major General Vetsop Namgyel, the Royal Bhutan Ambassador to India on November 1.
As a gesture of goodwill, the Assam government has announced the reservation of five medical college seats in the state for Bhutanese students.
This state visit takes on added significance in the context of recent developments, as it follows the 25th round of boundary talks between China and Bhutan in Beijing, where an agreement was signed regarding the “responsibilities and functions of the joint technical team on the delimitation and demarcation of the Bhutan-China boundary.”