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Advani to meet Bush, Blair
New Delhi, Jun 02: Within days of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee holding talks with them, his deputy L K Advani will meet US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair during his ten-day tour of the two countries beginning June seven.
New Delhi, Jun 02: Within days of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee holding talks with them, his deputy L K Advani will meet US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair during his ten-day tour of the two countries beginning June seven.
Advani, who would be meeting Bush as deputy prime minister for the first time, would be visiting the US as a guest of Vice-President Dick Cheney, official sources said today.
The scheduled meetings assume significance in the wake of Bush`s assurance to Vajpayee in St Petersburg that he would take up the issue of cross-border terrorism with President Pervez Musharraf during the Pakistani ruler`s visit to Washington later this month.
During his week-long stay in the US, Advani would also hold talks with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Bush is expected to "drop in" during the meetings with either Rumsfeld or Rice, the sources said.
Besides Washington, Advani is also scheduled to visit New York and Chicago.
In the second leg of his tour, Advani would be in London on June 15 and 16 and have wide-ranging discussions with Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
No agreements would be signed during Advani`s two-nation tour, the sources said.
The Deputy Prime Minister would be accompanied by Home Secretary N Gopalaswami, Intelligence Bureau chief K P Singh and senior officials of the home and external affairs ministries.
Bureau Report