Working on rescheduling Mamata’s visit to China: Envoy

Kolkata, Aug 17 : Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Ma Zhanwu on Friday said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's trip to that counrty earlier this year got cancelled due to "technical problems" from the Chinese side and revealed that they are working on rescheduling her visit in the coming months.

"The visit did not happen due to some technical problems on the part of the Chinease side.

But do not want to focus on that anymore. We want to focus on how and when the visit can happen in the coming days," Ma told the reporters on the sidelines of an event here.

"Our invitation to the Chief Minister's office is open.

She is most welcome to visit China. We hope that she could settle on a date, maybe in the coming months or next year. We are working on it," the envoy said.

Banerjee was supposed to visit China on a eight-day tour starting June 22 this year as part of the Exchange Programme between the Government of India and the International Department of the Communist Party of China.

However, she cancelled the trip as the scheduled political meetings "at the appropriate level" between the two countries were not confirmed.

"Although our Ambassador tried his best to make the programme a success, non-confirmation of the political meetings as proposed by the Indian Ambassador to China, at the last moment, unfortunately compelled us to cancel the visit," she had said on social media.

--IANS

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Source: IANS