Sonia to attend Olympics inaugural ceremony

New Delhi, Aug 3: Congress President and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, will leave for Beijing on Aug 7 to attend the inaugural ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The Games, which are to commence from August 8, will see 80 heads of state and government including, US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and French President Nikolas Sarkozy.

According to the party sources, Sonia is expected to be accompanied by her children Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi and she is likely to stay in China for two to three days. Sonia and Rahul, who is a Congress General Secretary, had visited China last October soon after the Communist Party of China (CPC) congress and held wide-ranging discussions with all the top leaders of the country, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

This was followed by a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Beijing in January.

Earlier on July 24, Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan had called on the Congress President at her 10, Janpath residence and handed over a formal invitation from the CPC.

The Chinese Government had also appreciated the manner in which India had facilitated the Olympic torch relay in New Delhi earlier this year and had forestalled any protests by exiled Tibetan here.

ANI