Manama: King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa’s visits to Asian countries are an indication of the historic and robust ties that Bahrain has with states from the world’s largest continent, the Bahraini foreign minister has said.
The king last week was on a three-day unprecedented state visit to India that has been hailed a “tremendous success” by both Bahraini and Indian officials.
King Hamad had previously visited China, Japan and Thailand.
“Bahrain celebrates the success of these visits and builds on it to strengthen and broaden relations and cooperation at various levels and in diverse fields,” Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa said in remarks carried by Bahrain News Agency (BNA) on Wednesday. “Bahrain has had special relations with Asian countries that spanned for centuries and that consolidated commercial and cultural exchanges and cooperation between them. Such relations are strong and well-anchored and cannot be dropped for the sake of other relations,” he said.
On Monday, Mohan Kumar, the Indian ambassador to Bahrain, hailed the success of King Hamad’s visit to his country.
“The state visit of His Majesty King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa to India on February 18-20 February was hugely successful,” he said. “His Majesty’s talks with the top Indian leadership including the President and the Prime Minister of India were detailed and wide-ranging. There were a host of memoranda of understanding and agreements that were signed between the two sides leading to strengthening and consolidation of bilateral ties.”
The diplomat said that the visit was “truly historic” and has “taken bilateral ties to the next level.”
“It also lays a solid foundation upon which the relationship between our two friendly countries can go forward,” he said.
