Vice President Hamid Ansari returns home after cancelling Brunei visit

NEW DELHI: Vice President Hamid Ansari returned home today from Indonesia after cancelling his visit to Brunei following closure of the Bali airport due to 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 in Bali on Tuesday due to a large ash cloud drifting from Mount Rinjani, an active volcano on the nearby island.

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

Ansari will host Li for talks and the Chinese leader will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow besides calling on President Pranab Mukherjee.