Modi arrives in Palestine

Ramallah Feb 10 (IANS) Narendra Modi arrived here on Saturday to become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Palestine.

Modi was received by his Palestinian counterpart Rami Hamdallah after alighting from a helicopter that brought him to Ramallah from Jordan capital Amman.

Modi will hold talks with Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas following which a number of agreements are going to be signed.

This will be the fourth meeting between Modi and Abbas after those on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 2015 at the Paris climate summit later that year and at the Palestinian President s visit to India last year.

The visit will reaffirm India s foreign policy position that its relationship with one country is independent of its ties with a third country and will de-hyphenate Israel and Palestine after Modi s standalone visit to Israel in July last year.

Palestine is the first leg of Modi s three-nation tour of West Asia that will also see him going to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman.

--IANS
ab/vm