Hamid Ansari to talk terror during Hungary visit

Vice-President Hamid Ansari will raise with Hungary and Algeria the issue of cross-border terrorism affecting India amid the going tension with Pakistan in the wake of the Uri attack and surgical strikes carried out by Indian Army in terror launch pads.

Mr Ansari will embark on a four-day visit to Hungary and Algeria on Saturday. “Absolutely. This will be the major theme in all his (Vice-President) bilateral talks,” secretary in the ministry of external affairs, Sujata Mehta, told reporters here when asked whether Mr Ansari will raise the issue of cross border terrorism with the leaders of the two countries.

Mr Mehta said “terrorism will be a major item in both Hungary and Algeria”.

She said terrorism is not new for Algeria and it has fought a very difficult terror group in the recent past. “There will be meetings of minds to fight terrorism with all his interlocutors and counterparts in both the countries,” she said. During the visit, Mehta said, Mr Ansari will have bilateral meetings with Presidents of Hungary and Algeria, Prime Minister of Hungary and speakers of national Assembly.

She said the high-level visit to Hungary comes after more than two decades when the then President Shankar Dayal Sharma had visited the central European country in 1993.