A nostalgic tune, a royal ball and Vajpayee smiles

If prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, on his second trip to Cambodia in seven months, was expecting a formal banquet hosted by the King of Cambod...

If prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, on his second trip to Cambodia in seven months, was expecting a formal banquet hosted by the King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk to be short and sweet, he was in for a big surprise. The banquet, on account of the Asean Summit, lasted over three-and-a-half hours with the band playing number from Raj Kapoor’s Awara, ‘‘Awara hoon’’, leaving the Prime Minister with a smile on his face.

At yesterday’s banquet, Vajpayee had an entertainment-packed evening with the King and Queen of Cambodia dancing and singing.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Minister for External Affairs Yashwant Sinha said: ‘‘Such dancing and singing by the King and Queen of Cambodia at a formal banquet was unexpected. Such affairs are usually formal.” The banquet was attended by Heads of State/government of all Asean countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Brunei Darussalam, along with Japan, South Korea and India.

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Cambodia and India have forged close ties that has culminated into India being invited for an Asean-India Summit at the PM’s level. At the Asean meeting yesterday, Cambodia was able to swing in a victory for India by making the dialogue a regular annual feature.

India is expected to sign agreements to give Cambodia a credit line of $ 10 million, 10,000 tonnes of rice, along with an MoU between IIT, Mumbai, and Institute for Technology, Cambodia, for faculty exchange for technical learning for a developing Cambodia.

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