Moscow Embassy hosts dinner for Gujarat delegation

Ahmedabad, Oct 26 : A high-level Gujarat delegation, headed by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was given a reception by the Indian embassy in Moscow last night.

The delegation, which also comprised senior bureucrats and top industrialists of the state, reached Moscow last evening on a two-day official visit. Indian Ambassador Sanjay Prasad Shukla and other officers extended a warm reception to Mr Modi and others.

Official sources said Mr Modi will address the International Energy Week conference and the nineth Russian Oil and Gas Conference at Moscow.

Agreements relating to oil and energy sectors having significance to Gujarat were expected to be signed by the delegation members with Russian firms, the sources said.

The Gujarat delegation, which also included the state's top most bureaucrat Chief Secretary D Rajagopalan, left here for Moscow by a special aircraft yesterday.

Earlier in the day, Mr Modi was briefly in Vadodara to witness the one-day cricket match between India and Australia.

Mr Modi's Russia visit attached much importance since he was denied a visa by the United States of America in 2005 in the backdrop of the 2002 communal riots targetting Muslims in Gujarat, in which over 1,000 lives were lost. The state-wide riots followed the train carnage in which 59 Hindu faithfuls returning from Ayodhya were killed as a train coach was torched allegedly by Muslim fanatics at Godhra station on February 27, 2002.

--UNI

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