Hamid Ansari cancels Brunei visit; leaves for India

BALI: Vice President Hamid Ansari today left Indonesia for India after cancelling his visit to Brunei which got delayed following closure of the Bali airport due to the spewing of volcanic ash from a nearby mountain.

Ansari was scheduled to leave Bali for Brunei yesterday but the flight was cancelled. He called off his visit to Brunei and left for New Delhi by a special flight.

Local authorities had closed the Ngurah Rai International Airport here on Tuesday due to a large ash cloud drifting from Mount Rinjani, an active volcano on the nearby island.

It is learnt that one of the factors because of which the Brunei trip had to be cancelled was that Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao has arrived in India on a five-day visit.

Li is scheduled to hold talks with counterpart Ansari, who is the host, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow, besides calling on President Pranab Mukherjee.

Ansari had arrived in Indonesia on November 1 and after spending two days in Jakarta, he travelled to Bali on Tuesday where he visited the famous Tanah Lot Temple and addressed students of the University of Udayana.

The shutting down of Bali airport had forced closure of hundreds of international flights and left many tourists, including Indians, stranded.