New Delhi, May 04: Bahrain`s Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa Salman al Khalifa will undertake a five-day visit to India from May 4, mainly aimed at bolstering bilateral economic and trade ties. He will hold wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the entire gamut of bilateral relations and exchange views on the Iraq developments and other important regional and international issues.

New Delhi is attaching considerable importance to his visit. This is the first high-profile visit from any leader of Baharain since 1983 when Amir of Bahrain travelled to India to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit. The two sides recognise the immense potential that exists for substantially increasing the volume of bilateral trade in diversified areas.

India`s exports to Bahrain increased from 95.3 million dollars to 134.55 million dollars in 2002. There are at present 1.35 lakh Indians working in Bahrain.

Bureau Report