Modi's ministers to criss-cross the globe

New Delhi, Sep 10: Ministers of the Modi government will criss-cross the globe in the next three months as part of an outreach programme that will cover 68 countries to achieve the target of NDA ministers having visited all the 192 nations with which India has diplomatic relations.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Hungary, which is among the countries not visited by any minister in the Modi government.

Apart from Singh, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will visit Estonia and Latvia and Chemical and Fertiliser Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar will be heading to Tongo, while BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party leader and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has been assigned to travel to Mauritius.

The entire exercise is likely to be over by the year end. Noting that by 2016-end, the government will not leave any country where Indian Ministers have not gone, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in letters to the ministers, said her Ministry has identified 68 nations yet to be visited by them.

She has also conveyed that all the interactions in the visiting countries will be arranged by the respective ambassadors and, in case a minister was interested in visiting certain places in those countries, their itinerary will be made accordingly.

The aim of the visits, which is part of government's massive outreach programme, is to enhance bilateral ties and explore areas of cooperation, official sources said.

PTI