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Jaswant may not attend ASEAN meeting in Vietnam

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley's plans to meet his Indian counterpart Jaswant Singh during the ASEAN meeting in Vietnam next week may not materialise, since Singh has reportedly canceled his trip to Hanoi.

The meeting between the two foreign ministers is now likely to take during the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting in Brisbane in October, according to sources in Ottawa.

India and Canada, like the United States, are "dialogue partners" in ASEAN, the southeast Asian grouping that has 10 members and 10 "dialogue partners".

Had the two foreign ministers met in Vietnam, it would have been their first meeting after Canada decided to re-engage with India and lifted sanctions that Ottawa imposed following India's nuclear experiment in May 1998.

Canada is keen to get firsthand knowledge of what transpired during Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's Summit in Agra.

Manley is now likely to discuss the summit and its aftermath, among other things, with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will be representing the US at the ASEAN meeting.

The sources said Manley has been trying to meet Jaswant Singh for some time and Canadian diplomats were hoping the meeting would finally materialize in Hanoi.

After Canada lifted sanctions, ministerial traffic between the two countries increased dramatically: Minister for Power Suresh Prabhu and Minister for Heavy Industries Manohar Joshi have already visited Canada, while the Agriculture Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Nagaland are arriving here next week.

Canadian Minister for International Trade Pierre Pettigrew is going to India in October at the head of a business delegation and that will be followed by the visit of Finance Minister Paul Martin, who will attend G-20 meeting in New Delhi.

Manley is likely to visit India early next year, the sources added.

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