Deuba, who will be accompanied by his spouse Arzu Rana Deuba and party colleague Bimalendra Nidhi, is scheduled to hold meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, among other senior Indian officials, during his six-day stay in India. [break]
Deuba will leave Kathmandu for New Delhi at 10 a.m. and attend a function to be organized by the Nepali Janasamparka Samiti in the afternoon, according to his tentative itinerary.
While Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and national security adviser Menon are scheduled to meet Deuba at the Maurya Hotel on Monday morning, he will attend a lunch reception to be hosted by Indian Foreign Minister Khurshid at Hyderbad House in the afternoon. The lunch reception will also be attended by former Indian ambassadors to Nepal and senior government officials.
On Tuesday, Deuba will have a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Singh at 11 a.m. and deliver a keynote speech on Nepal"s upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) poll at a talk program being organized by Observers" Research Foundation (ORF), a New Delhi-based think tank. The Nepalese embassy in New Delhi is scheduled to host a dinner in honor of Deuba in the evening.
Deuba will fly to Dehradun, capital of the Indian state of Uttarakhanda, by special aircraft on Wednesday morning at the invitation of Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, and fly back to New Delhi the same afternoon.
Deuba is scheduled to hold separate meetings with senior Indian leaders including Karan Singh, Digbijaya Singh, Pawan Prakash, K C Tyagi, Sitaram Yechuri and Mulayam Singh Yadav, during his stay in New Delhi. ´His appointments with the Indian political leaders are being arranged. The Nepalese embassy is coordinating the arrangements,” Nidhi told Republica.
Deuba held meetings with President Ram Baran Yadav, NC President Sushil Koirala, party colleagues and Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi to inform them about his India visit. On Saturday, he also held a meeting with former Nepalese ambassadors to India and officials overseeing India-related issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), to learn more about the issues that Nepal has with India.
Deuba is flying back home on Friday. His visit comes after UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal"s visit to India at April-end.
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Prime Minister Deuba leaving for official visit to India today
