Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan, who is on a maiden visit to Djibouti visited the chancery and interacted with the officials of the embassy on Thursday.

Taking to Twitter, the official handle of the Indian embassy in Djibouti wrote, “Hon’ble @MOS_MEA visited the Chancery and interacted with the Embassy officials. @MEAIndia @SecretaryCPVOIA @IndianDiplomacy.”

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The minister arrived in the Horn of Africa nation on his maiden visit on Wednesday. It is the first ministerial visit from India after a resident embassy opened in Djibouti.

“H.E. @MOS_MEA arrived in Djibouti today on his maiden visit. This is also the first Ministerial visit from India after the opening of a resident Embassy here. He was warmly received by both the Ambassadors @indiaindjibouti & @djibembindia,” the official account of India in Djibouti tweeted.

MoS Muraleedharan is on an official visit to Djibouti from September 21-22 in his first visit to the country.

During the visit, MoS will call on the Prime Minister of Djibouti Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed and will hold talks with Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and other dignitaries on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest, reported the Ministry of External Affairs press release.

An agreement on the exemption from visa requirement for holders of Diplomatic & Official/Service Passports; and MoU between the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service (SSIFS) and the Institute of Diplomatic Studies (IDS) of Djibouti will also be signed, adding the release.

The MoS will interact with the Djiboutian leadership and Indian community as well.

India and Djibouti share warm and friendly relations underpinned by historical and cultural linkages. Djibouti extended extraordinary support in the evacuation of Indian nationals from war-torn Yemen in 2015 (Operation Rahat).
Under Operation Rahat, India evacuated nearly 5,600 people from Yemen.

In 2015, a conflict raged between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels.
A sizeable Indian community is living in Djibouti. The visit is expected to provide further momentum to the bilateral ties between India and Djibouti.