New Delhi, Jan 19: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has "postponed" his visit to Thailand and Australia which was to start from February 08, official sources said today. The sources said the Prime Minister spoke to his Thai counterpart Thaksin Shinawatra on Saturday expressing his inability to attend the conference of BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation). Shinawatra informed Vajpayee that he would consult other leaders from BIMSTEC countries.
Vajpayee spoke this morning to the Thai premier who said BIMSTEC has been deferred.
The postponement decision appears to have been taken in view of the likely dissolution of Lok Sabha in the first week of next month and hectic preparations that may follow for the coming parliamentary elections.
Vajpayee was to travel to Phuket in Thailand for the BIMSTEC meet and from there slated to undertake a bilateral visit to Australia at the invitation of his Australian counterpart John Howard. When the two met recently in Nigeria during the Commonwealth, Howard had pressed Vajpayee to undertake the visit to his country. Bureau Report