Indian President Kovind honoured in Croatia

Muscat: Ram Nath Kovind became the first Indian President to officially visit Croatia where he received a warm welcome on his arrival in Zagreb. He was later honoured with the country’s top civilian award by his Croatian counterpart President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “During his state visit to Croatia, President Kovind is honoured with the Grand Order of King Tomislav, the highest award of Croatia. President Kovind dedicated it to India-Croatia friendship.”
The award is given to heads of state as the highest honour of the Republic of Croatia for their actions during the establishment of the sovereign Republic of Croatia, for their extraordinary contributions to its international reputation and position, and for important contributions to the development of state relations between Croatia and their respective countries.
The Grand Order consists of the badge with sash, grand star, reduced size badge, miniature, small decorative emblem and certificate Kovind’s visit to Croatia the first leg of a three nation visit that will also take him to Bolivia and Chile. He is accompanied by a high-level delegation which will join a number of bilateral business forums organised as part of his visit.
Vijay Thakur Singh, the Ministry’s Secretary (East) told reporters about the trip, “The President will then proceed to visit two Latin American countries and his visit to the region is a part of India’s growing engagement with countries in Latin America.
He will be visiting Bolivia from 28th to 30th March’2019. This is the first ever high-level visit between the two countries since the establishment of diplomatic relations. “From Bolivia, he will be going to Chile on 30 March. This visit to Chile is taking place as our two countries are celebrating 70 years of our diplomatic relations.”
Press Secretary to the president, Ashok Malik added, “This is the 9th state visit of President Kovind and the first in 2019. It is the 5th visit of his second year of his presidency, which began in July last year.”
The tour will take the total number of countries officially visited by Kovind to 20. “It includes two flights that are of 13 hours, one flight that is of 11 hours and one flight that is of 10 hours. If you take the entire flying time the President Kovind will be flying for 50 hours and 40 minutes, which tells you something about the visit,” he stated.