Rahul Gandhi will next week embark on a visit to Bahrain, his first foreign trip after becoming Congress president, during which he will address a convention of NRIs and is likely to meet the country's prime minister.
According to party sources, Gandhi will be the state guest of the Kingdom of Bahrain and will address NRIs settled there on 8 January.
He will leave for Bahrain on 7 January and is likely to return on 9 January. The NRIs settled there have invited him.
Gandhi is also likely to meet Bahrain's Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and the members of the royal family, the sources said.
They added that he was to also address NRIs in Dubai but that visit has been postponed.
Gandhi is further scheduled to visit United Arab Emirates during the tour. Taking off from his Berkely visit earlier last year, Gandhi will address town hall meetings in the United Arab Emirates. According to Swati Chaturvedi’s piece in NDTV, Gandhi is also scheduled to meet with local businesses who employ Indians.
Citing sources, Chaturvedi wrote that Gandhi’s middle east tour is part of his strategist Sam Pitroda’s campaign to project the Congress president as a ‘more confident and assertive’ leader, which will see him undertake a foreign outreach trip every four months.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also due to visit the UAE later in January.
(with inputs from NDTV, PTI)
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