Today, PM Modi meets Oman’s Sultan who once studied in India

Modi is expected to tap into the “personal connect” of Oman’s Sultan. The PM is also scheduled to visit a 250-year-old Shiva temple in Muscat during his visit to the gulf nation.

Written by Shubhajit Roy

Ramallah | Updated: February 11, 2018 06:46 AM IST

2 min read

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When Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said on Sunday evening, he will be meeting a man who was, as a student, taught by Shankar Dayal Sharma, who went on to become the President of India. Sultan Qaboos’s father, an alumnus of Ajmer’s Mayo College, sent his son to study in Pune for some time, where he was former President Shankar Dayal Sharma’s student. He completed a part of his early education from a private institution in Pune.

“He has very fond memories from his student days…and that is the reason he has been very generous towards the Indian community and India’s requests for help. That is expected to be acknowledged during the visit,” an Indian diplomat told The Indian Express from Muscat.

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Modi is expected to tap into the “personal connect” of Oman’s Sultan. The PM is also scheduled to visit a 250-year-old Shiva temple in Muscat. He will meet Sultan Qaboos at Bait Al Barakah Royal Palace for a special dinner where the two leaders will review bilateral cooperation. They are expected to identify new areas of cooperation and exchange views on the regional situation in South Asia and West Asia regions, including the Gulf, along with global issues of mutual interest.

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Sultan Qaboos had also played a role in the release of Father Tom Uzhunnalil, the Vatican priest who was abducted in Yemen in March 2016 and released in September 2017. Sultan Qaboos was reportedly in constant touch with parties from Yemen as well as the Ministry of External Affairs during the negotiations. The Sultan has in the past intervened to get other hostages released.

A major highlight of Modi’s visit will be an address at an Indian community programme at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Oman.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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