New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a busy foreign travel schedule in coming months as he is slated to visit Bhutan, his first stop abroad; Japan, Brazil and the US.
Noting that the new Prime Minister’s foreign policy inbox was “very crowded”, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said on Friday that Modi will be travelling to Bhutan later this month.
On visit to other countries, he said there was a request by Japanese government for an early visit of Modi to their country and India was working “very closely” with them to work on that request. Probed further, the Spokesperson said the month of Modi’s visit to Japan was likely to be July.
During his visit to Japan, Modi will hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on key bilateral and regional issues in the backdrop of China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.
Giving details of India’s involvement at multilateral levels like BRICS, G-20, UNGA among others, he said most of these are attended at the highest level from India, indicating that Modi may travel to Brazil for Summit of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) to be held in mid July.
Asked if there will be an IBSA Summit also at that time, he merely said there was a talk of Brazil being host for both BRICS and IBSA.
Referring to an invitation from the US for a Summit meeting between American President Barack Obama and Modi, the Spokesperson said Obama was among the first foreign leaders to make a congratulatory call to Modi during which a specific invitation was made.
“We have received a specific date for the visit (from the US). We are now in contact with the US to work out mutually convenient date for Prime Minister to be in Washington for a Summit level meeting,” the Spokesperson said. However, he did not give dates and only said that it will be in the month of September, at the time around the UN General Assembly.
Asked if all the issues pertaining to senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested and subsequently released on a bail in a visa fraud case in New York last year, were over, the Spokesperson said there were “residual issues” in this matter which were being attended at appropriate levels.
Asked about visit of Nisha Desai Biswal, the Obama administration’s point person for South and Central Asia, from tomorrow, he said she was coming to hold regular official- level meeting with her counterpart, the Joint Secretary in Americas division of the MEA.
The MEA Spokesperson said this time the strategic dialogue between India and the US will be held in Washington and it will take place before Modi’s visit there in September.
The Fourth Round of the US-India Strategic Dialogue was held here in June last year during visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The Spokesperson said the two countries will have many interactions at officials level between now and September.
He indicated that Modi may attend a climate change summit to be organised at the United Nations.
On Modi’s proposed visit to Japan, he said Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj were in touch and both sides are working “very closely” to work out an early date.
Noting that the Prime Minister has received invitation from a number of countries including strategic partners, he said, “We are working with variety of strategic partners to arrive at specific dates for specific requests that have been made. It is normal that given the range of our strategic partners, we may not be able to have all of them in the time frame of six months that we are talking.”
The Spokesperson said there will be opportunities for engagements on the sidelines of multilateral events.
On Modi’s visit to Bhutan, he said both the countries enjoy a special and unique relationship which has been sustained by regular visits and extensive exchanges at highest level.
“In the light of these special relations, the Prime Minister looked forward to going to Bhutan on his first visit later during the month,” he said.
Asked whether Swaraj will accompany Modi during his visit to Bhutan, the Spokesperson only said both the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister will have their first visits to a neighbouring country. But he did not say whether Swaraj will accompany Modi or not.
“If you would like to know whether the External Affairs Minister independently would be going to another neighbour, my answer would be yes. This will indicate to you that the neighbourhood is India’s priority,” he said, adding it will not be before the visit of Modi to Bhutan.
