By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposed visit to the UAE en route to Durban in South Africa for the BRICS summit March 26-27 is not taking place due to “scheduling” issues.
“We were preparing for the visit. It had not been officially announced, but it is not taking place now,” a source told IANS.
The prime minister’s proposed visit was to be the first in three decades to the UAE by an Indian prime minister.
There were issues of “logistics and scheduling” as the flight to Durban would be a long one, the government source said.
No Indian prime minister has visited the UAE after the 1981 trip by late prime minister Indira Gandhi. However, there have been presidential visits from India, with former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visiting the UAE in October 2003 and Pratibha Patil paying a state visit in November 2010.
The UAE is home to an Indian expatriate community of more than 1.75 million.