NEW DELHI – Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a state visit toPalestine, UAE and Oman from February 9-12. This will be the first-evervisit by an Indian prime minister to Palestine.

During the visit, the prime minister will hold discussions on matters ofmutual interest with their leaders, apart from participating in otherevents.

PM Modi would be addressing the Sixth World Government Summit being held inDubai at which India has been extended ‘Guest of Honour’ status. He willalso meet the Indian community in UAE and Oman.

In Oman, PM Modi’s focus would be on intensifying cooperation in keysectors such as trade and defence. According to the Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA), the bilateral trade and investment between India and Omanremain robust and buoyant.

Bilateral trade, which saw a decline during 2014-15 and 2015-16, hasresumed its upward trend with an increase of 3.6 per cent from USD 3.8billion in 2015-16 to USD 4 billion in 2016-17, the ministry said.

PM Modi’s visit to Palestine assumes huge significance in the sense thatIndia was one of the first countries to recognise the state of Palestine in1988. The visit to Palestine also comes after PM Modi hosted Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu on a six-day visit to India between 14-19January as the two countries marked the completion of 25 years of theestablishment of diplomatic relations.

After the Modi-Netanyahu talks, Vijay Gokhale, secretary (economicrelations) in the MEA, had said, “What the two sides agreed, that ourrelationship was much larger than any single issue…that we need to look atit holistically and while we continue to talk to each other, ourrelationship is not determined by a single issue.” He was asked whether thelong-pending issue of Palestine figured in the talks between the two primeministers.

India, however, recently voted for an Arab sponsored resolution thatrejected US President Donald Trump’s move to recognise Jerusalem as theIsraeli capital despite its close ties with Israel.