By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS
Dubai : Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia beginning Feb 8 has been cancelled.
“The visit of the external affairs minister to Saudi Arabia has been cancelled as of now,” Rajiv Shahare, deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia, told IANS over phone from Riyadh Tuesday.
Asked the reason for the cancellation, he said, “I am not in a position to tell you the reason now. All I can say is that the minister will not be visiting the region in this period of time.”
Mukherjee’s visit would have been the first high-level visit from India to the Gulf’s most influential nation after the visit of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to India in January 2006.
This is the second time since 2007 that his visit to Riyadh has been cancelled.He was set to go to Riyadh in April last year, but met with an accident a day before his departure.