Krishna to visit 15 countries in 3 months
New Delhi aims at strengthening diplomatic ties after a hectic 2010
The year 2011 is likely to be packed with diplomatic activities for India just as 2010 was. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will be visiting 15 countries in three months, while India will be rolling out red carpets to foreign ministers of five countries during the same period.
Besides at least five of the African nations, the external affairs minister will be calling on the governments of Afghanistan, Australia, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Israel, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar over the next 90 days.
This follows the hectic 2010, when India played host to heads of state of the P5—the five countries that hold permanent seats at the UN Security Council—apart from dignitaries of South Africa, Seychelles, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, the UAE, Nepal, Palestine, Turkey, Slovenia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Germany, Malaysia, Iceland and South Korea.
PM’s sojourns
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a bid to strengthen friendly ties, visited Saudi Arabia, Germany, Japan and Malaysia.
He also attended the nuclear security summit in the United States, European Union summit at Belgium, G-20 summits at Korea and Canada and the Saarc summit in Bhutan.
The external affairs minister, on his part, visited 25 countries in 2010 and had either spoken to or held meetings with at least 141 of his counterparts.
Signifying the uneasy relations India has been having with neighbouring Pakistan, the reciprocal visit to the country by its foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in January is in doubt.
Continuing discomfort
The continuing discomfort between the countries meant that Pakistan’s foreign office is said to be wavering over the date of the visit.
Qureshi was to have returned Krishna’s controversial trip to Islamabad, which was hit deeply by Indian Home Secretary G K Pillai’s statement the previous day that Pakistan’s ISI controlled and coordinated the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The statement took away any significance Krishna’s visit may have had, besides jeopardising the talks.
