Yeltsin deputes Primakov for India visit

MOSCOW, Nov 18 (PTI) — Russian President Boris Yeltsin today cancelled his scheduled visit to India next month and instead asked Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov to make the trip, an announcement from the Kremlin said.

The Prime Minister will pay an official visit on the "assignment" of President Yeltsin from December 6 to 8, the Kremlin spokesman Smirty Yakushkin told Itar-Tass.

The two countries are expected to sign key bilateral documents, including a declaration on strategic partnership and a long-term defence pact.

"President Yeltsin attaches great importance to the continuity in relations in relations with the traditional foreign-policy partners of the Russian Federation," he said.

"The main goal of the visit is to continue and strengthen progressive tendencies in the development of relationship between the two countries," the Kremlin spokesman said.

He said Yeltsin appreciated the role of Russia as an effective mechanism for the implementation of agreements on the international stage and added "Primakov’s India visit in precisely in this context."

Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev also postponed his official visit to India scheduled from November 24. He is now likely to accompany Primakov next month.

Speculation over the 67-year-old Yeltsin’s health has hightened since he was taken ill last month. He has not gone abroad since his last trip to Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Yeltsin’s most recent health scare led him to pull out of trips to Austria and Russia’s debut at the APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur which Primakov attended on his behalf.

It became evident in October itself that the Russian President’s health is not good enough to visit India when after a three-and-half-hour flight to Tashkent, Yeltsin almost tumbled during the welcome ceremony in the Uzbek capital and had to cut short his Central Asian tour.

The New Delhi flight is two hours longer than the Moscow-Tashkent flight.

"Nothing horrible would happen if the President would not move around the world," declared Deputy Chief of the Kremlin administration Oleg Sysuyev in a TV programme.

"We have a powerful Foreign Ministry and an influential Prime Minister for this," Sysuyev said.

In January this year Yeltsin had to postpone his visit to India due to a bout of flu, though the mid-term Lok Sabha poll were stated by the Kremlin to be the official reason for the cancellation.

Last week Yeltsin skipped the state banquet in honour of the visiting Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. He was the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit the Kremlin in 25 years.

Earlier this week, he had only 15-minute one-to-one talks with the visiting German Chancellor Schroeder and a 30-minute plenary meeting.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin is expected in Moscow on November 22 on a three-day Russia visit for an informal summit with the President.

The actual "no necktie" meeting of Jiang and Yeltsin near Moscow is to last not more than 40-minutes during the Chinese leader’s stay in Moscow.

Commenting on the Indian parliamentary delegation’s Moscow visit, leading business daily Kommersant had said last week: though "India is eagerly awaiting Yeltsin’s visit, they would be too happy to welcome Primakov in his place".