Vice President Dhankhar meets Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarik

New Delhi [India], December 16 (ANI): Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar met with Oman Sultan Haitham bin Tarik in the national capital on Saturday.

The Sultan of Oman is on his maiden visit to India.

“This is also the first state visit from Oman to India in the last 26 years,” said Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra today while addressing a briefing on the ongoing visit of the Oman Sultan.

Earlier in the day, the Sultan of Oman met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two leaders held delegation-level talks with the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tarik, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

“The prime minister has just concluded his talks with the Head of State of the Sultan of Oman, who is currently on a state visit to India,” Kwatra also said.

“Talks were both in restricted format and in delegation-level format and covered a wide range of areas of our bilateral cooperation, which also reflected the multi-faceted nature of the India-Oman bilateral relationship,” Kwatra added.

The Sultan of Oman began his three-day state visit to India on Friday. He is visiting the country with a high-level delegation of senior ministers and officials, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in an official release.

“His Majesty is accompanied on this visit by a very high-level delegation comprising his Deputy Prime Minister for Defence, seven Cabinet ministers and three Vice Ministers,” the Foreign Secretary noted.

The Sultan of Oman was also accorded a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday, the second day of his state visit to India.

“As part of his state visit, His Majesty was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier this morning and later in the evening, His Majesty will be hosted by the Honourable Rashtrapati for a state banquet,” Kwatra said while briefing Oman Sultan’s schedule for the remainder of the day.

The Sultan was received by Union Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, as he arrived at the Delhi airport on Friday for a three-day state visit.