India miffed at S Africa's protocol chaos during PM's visit: report

The Indian government is angry at the South African president's failure to hold bilateral talks with its Prime Minister during last week's BRICS summit, a newspaper reported today.

The Indian government is angry at the South African president's failure to hold bilateral talks with its Prime Minister during last week's BRICS summit, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Indian delegation headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was keen to have a meeting with President Jacob Zuma on the sidelines of the summit in Durban from March 26-27.

But according to the Sunday Express, the entire schedule drawn up by the host country was in disarray and the two leaders were unable to hold talks.

Meanwhile Zuma did manage bilateral meetings with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.

Singh was scheduled to meet Zuma on March 26 but the plan had to be abandoned because the bilateral meeting between South Africa and Russia overshot by an hour, the paper said.

On March 27, South Africa's foreign minister wanted Singh to meet Zuma quickly for 15-20 minutes. But by then, according to the Express, the Indians were livid at the lack of respect for protocol and refused to comply at such short notice.

The paper said the Indians were also upset by the accommodation arrangements.

Singh had to travel into the city on both days of the summit and also suffer long delays in the programme, the Express said.

A foreign ministry spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment on the newspaper report.

Last year Zuma vowed that trade between South Africa and India would reach $15 billion per year before a self-imposed 2014 deadline, and both sides agreed to increase commercial exchanges.