Centre yet to announce Indo-Japan meet venue

New Delhi: With protests raging in Assam over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, India till Thursday evening did not announce the venue for the Indo-Japan annual summit that was expected to be held in Guwahati from December 15 to 17. Sources said the two countries were in close consultation and that a final decision would be taken soon either by Thursday night or Friday morning.

The ministry of external affairs (MEA) had never announced the venue though it had announced the dates for the summit recently. Doubts had arisen over whether Guwahati could host the summit due to the prevailing situation, though preparations had continued to be on track.

The MEA on Thursday said that when a summit is planned, there are “several options you look at” and that “certain venues come under consideration”.

With the prevailing uncertainty, there seem to be broadly three options. The first is to go ahead with Guwahati as the venue. The second is to change the venue to another city such as New Delhi. The third could be to postpone the summit.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting India for the summit. There are indications that New Delhi has emerged as a possible alternate venue since the Union government is confident that it can hold the summit in the national capital even at very short notice.