Andhra Pradesh: Jaganmohan to visit Israel, US in August

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy will be going on his first overseas trip, since assuming office in May, to Israel and the United States.
The visit is billed as a private one, because Reddy will be accompanied by his family and not a government delegation.
The date of the visit to Israel is expected to be finalised at a meeting with Ron Malka, the Israeli ambassador to India, on Friday. Malka will be travelling to Vijayawada to meet with the chief minister.
According to sources aware of Malka’s visit and his official agenda in Vijayawada, the chief minister will be travelling to Israel, retracing the footsteps of his father, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who went on a pilgrimage to Israel soon after the elections to the then combined state of Andhra Pradesh’s assembly in May, 2009. Jagan had accompanied father during that visit.
The sources said that Reddy will be spending two days in Israel, during which he is expected to visit Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Reddy, a Protestant, is also expected to take a dip in the River Jordan. The late YSR had also taken a dip in the River Jordan.
The chief minister, who got his diplomatic passport last week, will be travelling to the United States from Israel. He and his family are expected to be present at the fall-semester commencement of his daughter at an American university. Fall semesters at US universities begin in August.
“The visit to Israel could be for Thanksgiving. The late YSR had also travelled to Israel after winning the assembly elections in May 2009,” the source said.
Malka will be the first ambassador to call on Reddy, who took office as chief minister on May 30. Malka, an academician, was nominated to the post of ambassador to India by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, is September last year.