New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan will pay a two-day official visit to Djibouti starting Wednesday during which an agreement on exemption from visa requirement for holders of diplomatic and official passports would be signed.

This will be Muraleedharan's first visit to the country.

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During the visit on September 21-22, he will call on Djibouti Prime Minister 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, a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said.

He will also interact with the Indian community in Djibouti.

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During the visit, an agreement on exemption from visa requirement for holders of Diplomatic & Official/Service Passports, and an MoU between the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service (SSIFS) and the Institute of Diplomatic Studies (IDS) of Djibouti, will also be signed, the MEA said.

India and Djibouti share warm and friendly relations underpinned by historical and cultural linkages.

Djibouti had extended extraordinary support in the evacuation of Indian nationals from war-torn Yemen in 2015 (Operation Rahat). Ram Nath Kovind, the then President of India, paid a state visit to Djibouti in October 2017.

India opened Mission in Djibouti in 2019. Bilateral trade between the two countries was valued at USD 755 million in 2021-22. A sizeable Indian community is living in Djibouti.

The visit is expected to provide further momentum to the bilateral ties between India and Djibouti, the MEA said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)