Stockholm, April 17: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Monday evening to a warm welcome on the first leg of his three-nation tour of Europe that will also see him going to Britain and Germany.
Breaking protocol, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven received Modi at the airport here with a warm handshake.
This is the first prime ministerial visit from India to Sweden in 30 years after the visit of Rajiv Gandhi in 1988.
On Tuesday, Modi will hold a bilateral summit with Lofven following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed.
This apart, Modi and Lofven will attend a round table of Swedish CEOs.
India and Sweden will on Tuesday also co-host the first ever India-Nordic Summit, where, apart from Modi and Lofven, the Prime Ministers of the other four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway will also be present.
Modi will hold separate bilateral meetings with the leaders of the other four Nordic countries on the sidelines of the summit.
From Sweden, Modi will leave for Britain where he will hold a bilateral summit with British Prime Minister Theresa May on April 18.
On April 19-20, he will attend this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London.
While returning from Britain on April 20, he will stop over in Germany where he will a meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
