NEW DELHI: The proposed meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and actor-turned-Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay did not take place due to scheduling constraints on both sides, said Minister of Human Resources Datuk Seri R. Ramanan.
He said the engagements of both leaders did not align during the relevant period, resulting in the meeting not being able to be arranged.
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Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, will be extending his working visit here to Keralam (officially renamed from Kerala), a state on the Malabar Coast of southern India.
"Following this, the Prime Minister will be heading to the Maldives (Sept 14 to 15) and be back in Malaysia on time for Hari Malaysia.
"So, I want to put the record straight; the reason why that event didn’t take place is not because of any one party. It was because of a scheduling issue,” he told the Malaysian media covering Anwar’s working visit to the 18th BRIC Leaders’ Summit here.
Ramanan, who is part of the Prime Minister’s delegation, stressed that the development should not be interpreted beyond the scheduling circumstances, amid speculation surrounding the proposed meeting.
He also expressed hope that the matter would be viewed in the appropriate context, noting that scheduling considerations are a normal feature of high-level engagements. — Bernama
