Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay has thanked Narendra Modi for choosing Bhutan for his maiden foreign tour after taking over as the Prime Minister of India. Tobgay tweeted, “Thank you for giving us the opportunity to express our affection for you and the Indian people. B4B4Ever!”
Terming Modi’s visit as a success, Tobgay, in another tweet, said, “All thanks to the blessings of our Guardian Deities, leadership of our Kings, good fortune of our People.”
Modi immediately retweeted thanking Tobgay and the people of Bhutan for their warm hospitality and affection. He said: “May the bond between India and Bhutan grow further.” Terming the trip to be “very satisfying and productive”, Modi tweeted, “This Bhutan trip will remain etched in my memory.”
Earlier, during his speech in Bhutan Parliament Modi said that choice to visit Bhutan as first foreign trip came naturally. “Inner voice from my heart said, Go to Bhutan.” “After such a big mandate, there is usually a temptation to visit some big powerful nation so that there is praise all over. But my inner voice said that I should visit Bhutan first. There was no plan. It was a simple step. Had I not visited Bhutan first, my conscience would have questioned me why I did not do so,” Modi said while addressing the joint session of Bhutanese Parliament. He maintained that Indo-Bhutan relations are strong “not because we’ve opened our borders, but because we’ve opened our hearts.”
Bhutan acknowledged this special gesture by Indian PM. Modi received a warm welcome and a send off in Bhutan with people lined up on both sides of the entire stretch of the road, waving flags. Modi too got down from his car to interact with people. But before leaving Bhutan, PM in a special mention, said he was touched by the welcome song sung by primary school students during the luncheon hosted by King of Bhutan.