Modi's day out with school children in Fiji

Suva, Nov 19: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Fiji on a one-day visit Wednesday, met school children after a traditional welcome ceremony at Albert Park here.

The event was designed to greet Modi in the proud iTaukei tradition, and also in a way befitting a leader who rose from humble beginnings to lead the world's largest democracy, Fiji Live cited the Fijian government as saying.

Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Fiji since Indira Gandhi's visit in 1981.

Fiji is the final leg of Modi's three-nation 10-day tour. He visited Myanmar and Australia before arriving in Fiji.

Ethnic Indians comprise 37 percent of Fiji's population of nearly 900,000.

Most of them are descendants of indentured labourers who were brought in from India between 1879 and 1916 to work in the country's sugarcane plantations.

IANS