ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee will head the Indian delegation to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Hindustan Times reported on Saturday.

“It will be the first time in over a decade that someone other than the prime minister or the external affairs minister (Jaswant Singh in 1999) has headed the Indian delegation,” the daily noted.

According to the Indian daily, Dr Manmohan Singh, who dislikes long foreign tours when confronted with a visit to Brazil and either the UN General Assembly’s 61st session or the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, opted for the latter.

It quoted a senior ‘South Block’ official as saying that the Indian Premier’s decision to go to Havana for the NAM summit was based more on domestic political compulsions than foreign policy initiatives.

“The visit to Cuba would ease the concerns of the allies of the government from the Left parties that India was getting too close to the United States,” Hindustan Times said, adding: “The throwback to traditional foreign policy affiliations, like the Non-Aligned Movement, would also assuage concerns of the country’s large (Muslim) population.”

It quoted Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran as saying that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a vision to make NAM more contemporary and revive its ‘bridging role’ between developed and developing nations.