Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India] January 17 (ANI): Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday welcomed Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his wife in the state.

"I welcomed His Excellency the President of Singapore, Shri Tharman Shanmugaratnam to Odisha, the land of the Lord," Majhi said in a post on X.

Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Jaideep Mazumdar, said on Friday, that Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam is on a four-day state visit to India. He said that a number of MoUs are expected to be signed during his visit to Odisha.

While addressing a special briefing on Singapore President's visit to India, Mazumdar said that Shanmugaratnam had expressed desire to visit eastern part of India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Singapore in September last year. He said that Singapore President is keenly awaited by the Odisha government.

Speaking about Singapore President's visit to Odisha, Jaideep Mazumdar said, "Today, President and his delegation travelling to Odisha. This is a significant, he's taking with him a large and senior business delegation. He had expressed his interest to travel to the eastern part of India during Prime Minister's visit to Singapore in September last year and Prime Minister had encouraged him to do so. It fits in with Prime Minister's Purvodaya's..., which is the development of the Eastern region and a number of MoUs are expected to be signed during the visit of the President of Singapore to Odisha. These are in areas of green hydrogen, green shipping, industrial park, petrochemical complexes and overall in skill development especially in the semiconductor sphere and in other skill development areas.""So, this will be a visit to Odisha which is very keenly awaited by the Odisha government. The Chief Minister of Odisha will also be hosting a banquet, in his honor, the Governor will also be having a meeting with the President and there will be other business meetings as well. The president will also go to Konark to visit the Sun Temple as well as an artist's Village. So, all in all this is a fitting visit to commemorate 60 years of our diplomatic relations and on this occasion both the President of India and the president of Singapore jointly released a logo to commemorate the year-long observance of this important anniversary," he added. (ANI)