External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today averted a diplomatic embarrassment as she managed time to meet top leaders of ruling CPN-UML including Deputy Prime Minister and acting chief of the party Bamdev Gautam at the last minute.
Earlier, she was supposed to meet Gautam and other CPN-UML leaders in a five star hotel here yesterday, which could not materialise due to some miscommunication.
"It was just a miscommunication, and finally misunderstanding was averted as she managed time to meet our leaders Sunday morning," general secretary of the party Ishwor Pokharel, who was also present at the meeting, told PTI.
"We had an hour long productive talks with the Minister for External Affairs," he said.
Swaraj met the CPN-UML team led by Gautam at Hotel Hyatt Regency just before visiting the Pashupatinath Temple for offering prayer this morning an hour before leaving Kathmandu wrapping up her three-day visit.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) is the second largest party in Nepal's Constituent Assembly after the Nepali Congress.
"The visit was much more successful than I had expected," Swaraj told journalists, waiting at the Kathmandu airport shortly before her departure.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told media persons that the meeting with Gautam could not take place yesterday due to some communication gap.
