Jaitley cuts short China visit

New Delhi, June 27

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has cut short his visit to China by a day and returned home on Sunday.

Jaitley, who began a five-day visit to China on June 24 primarily to attend the first meeting of the Board of Governors of the $100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), was back here last night.

He was originally scheduled to meet Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei today but the meeting was advanced to take place yesterday itself.

His other engagements, including meetings with National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shaoshi and People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, scheduled for today, were also advanced to allow him to return to India last night.

Officials did not give any reason for Jaitley cutting short his visit but there was media speculation that he was unhappy with party MP Subramanian Swamy’s veiled attacks on him and top Finance Ministry officials and was keen that the party act to rein him in. — PTI