Greece congratulates India on historic success of Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing ahead of Modi's visit

Greece sent a congratulatory note to India following the success of the historic Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing and expressed joy for the upcoming visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Athens on Friday.

"Congratulations to India and our Indian friends for the historic Moon landing of Chandrayaan-3. We look forward to welcoming the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to Greece this week!" the Greek Foreign Ministry said.

The moon rover of India’s Chandrayaan-3 exited the spacecraft on Thursday morning to begin its exploration of the lunar surface, the country’s space agency said on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The spacecraft landed on the unexplored south pole of the moon on Wednesday evening, making India the first country to achieve this feat.

“The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander, and India took a walk on the moon!” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in its message.

Modi embarked for South Africa to attend the 15th BRICS Summit at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday. He will visit Johannesburg from August 22-24 and follow it up with a visit to Greece on August 25.

This will be the prime minister's first in-person BRICS Summit since 2019. The grouping will review the progress of the initiatives launched earlier and identify future areas of activity.

Modi will travel to Athens at the invitation of Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“This will be my first visit to this ancient land. I have the honour to be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Greece after 40 years,” said Modi.

In his visit to Greece, the two leaders will hold talks to discuss ways to deepen the relationship between the two countries further. Modi will also interact with business leaders from both countries and the Indian community in Greece.

READ MORE: To project Turkish influence in Africa, Erdogan needs an unstable Libya.