Prime Minister Narendra Modi to limit his foreign tours this year

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will limit his visits abroad in the year 2016. He will only travel when it is absolutely necessary, allowing him time to focus on domestic issues.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Modi's presence in the country will help him concentrate on the upcoming budget session, where his government will present it for the third time, and growing farmer crisis.

Sources say that the visits to 33 countries spanning over 19 months were to reinvigorate India's foreign relations. They were also to show that the PM can handle the Indian neighbourhood. "PM Modi’s hectic external engagements were to dispel the notion that a former chief minister with little diplomatic experience could not make it to the high table as well as counter a campaign by pro-Congress intellectuals to deny him a visa to travel to the West because of his so-called role in the 2002 Gujarat riots,” a top Indian diplomat said.

Currently, his schedule is limited to a trip to Riyadh in February, visit Brussels for India-EU summit and attend nuclear security conference in Washington in March. In the later half of the year, PM Modi will travel to Pakistan for the SAARC summit.