PM Modi receives a grand welcome at Paro International Airport by Bhutan PM Lotay Tshering

The much-awaited two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bhutan commences as he arrives in the Tibetan city on the morning of August 17. On his arrival, the PM was given a grand ceremonial welcome at the Paro International Airport by Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering. The agenda behind Prime Minister Modi's visit to Bhutan on August 17 is for the two strategic allies to come together and explore ways to further strengthen and diversify bilateral partnership.

Ministry of External Affairs had also confirmed that Modi's visit to India's "trusted friend" reflects the high priority it attaches to its relations with the neighbouring country. During the visit, Modi is set to hold talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering and is expected to get an audience with King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.

PM Modi received a grand welcome by the locals of Bhutan. In one of the videos put out by the PM himself, people especially children were seen waving the Indian Tricolour and Bhutanese flags as Prime Minister Modi's convoy passed through the route from Paro to Thimpu

འབྲུག་ལུ་འོང་བའི་དྲན་ཐོ། འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་དེ་མཛེས་པ་རང་བཞིན་བཞིན་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་གཅིག་དང་མི་སེར་ཚུ་ཡང་ཡ་མཚན་ཆེ་བའི་ཞི་འཇམ་ཨིན་མས། pic.twitter.com/kROTgyJimr

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi)

Showered by warm greetings of the people of Bhutan, the overwhelmed Prime Minister took to Twitter to express his gratitude,

A memorable welcome in Bhutan! This is a land blessed with natural beauty and wonderful people. There is immense enthusiasm here and the people of Bhutan want to see the India-Bhutan friendship scale newer heights of success. @PMBhutan pic.twitter.com/ELNWjLGEL0

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi)

The PM of Bhutan was touched by the kindness exuberated by Modi towards the locals of Bhutan greeting him. Taking to twitter he lauded the Prime Minister for his warm nature. "I am personally touched to see that Shri Narendra Modi's acknowledging and responding to all the students, teachers and villagers greeting him on his way to Thimphu. This reinforces the fact that he is very down-to-earth and real. His affection for children is clear and visible," the Bhutan PM said. He also tweeted the following

In what is the third bilateral meeting, Lyonchhen Dr Lotay Tshering and Shri @narendramodi, met in Gyalyong Tshogkhang this evening.

Taking off on a very special note, the two Prime Ministers exchanged thoughts on strengthening the cooperation between the two countries. pic.twitter.com/CjjLzmst6S

— PM Bhutan (@PMBhutan)

READ: Prime Minister Narendra Modi To Travel To Bhutan For Two-day Visit On August 17

The Prime Minister is also set to address the Bhutanese students at the prestigious Royal University of Bhutan on August 18 during his two-day trip. During his visit, 10 MoUs are slated to be signed between both the countries and five inaugurations are likely to take place. PM Modi shall also be accorded the guard of honour when he visits Tashichhodzong on August 17.

READ: PM Modi To Embark On Two-day Visit To Bhutan, Read His Departing Statement Here