Foreign visits to keep PM Modi busy till year-end

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is soon going to embark upon a plethora of foreign visits that will keep him busy till the end of this year.

Modi, who was sworn in last month, will begin his foreign trips with Bhutan, which will be later this month.

It is expected the prime minister will strengthen economic ties with the Himalayan kingdom. Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay was invited to attend Modi’s gala swearing-in ceremony that took place on May 26.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is also expected to make her debut foreign visit to a neighbouring country this month, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed on Friday, although the destination was not revealed.

Modi’s proposed visit to Bhutan, followed by Swaraj’s visit to a neighbouring country, is being seen by many as yet another signal that strengthening bilateral and strategic ties with neighbours will form the core of the new government’s foreign policy agenda.

Modi is expected to visit Brazil, Japan and the United States for bilateral talks. Besides, a series of multilateral events are going keep his hands full from July.

“The prime minister’s inbox related to foreign policy is pretty crowded… There has been a tremendous amount of interest among leaders around the globe regarding our new government,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said here on Friday.

Modi is scheduled to visit Brazil in July to attend the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa or BRICS summit. In the same month, he will be visiting Japan to hold bilateral talks with Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

The dates are being worked out by both countries.

US leg
In September, he will be visiting the United States for summit-level talks with President Barack Obama in Washington, DC.

In the US, he will also be going to New York to attend the UN General Assembly meeting.

Modi is then expected to visit Myanmar to take part in the East Asian summit, during which time the Asean-India summit will also take place.

The East Asia summit will take place in October.

Around the same time, the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) Summit will also take place, which will be hosted by Brazil this year.

This will be closely followed by the prime minister’s visit to Brisbane, Australia for the G-20 summit. In the same month, he might also visit Kathmandu to attend the Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit.