Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay’s trip to U.K. was cleared by Ministry of External Affairs, says official

The ongoing official trip of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to the United Kingdom had been cleared by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), according to a senior official.

“It is the Indian High Commission in London that is making all the arrangements for the travel, including security,” said the official, in response to the question of why Mr. Vijay had chosen to be away when Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was to be in Chennai on Sunday (September 13, 2026).

Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar had planned to host a high tea for the Malaysian Prime Minister on Sunday, for which he had invited Mr. Vijay, said another official. This was planned in connection with Mr. Ibrahim’s participation in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) 18th summit of heads-of-state and government.

However, the Chief Minister’s overseas tour programme had been finalised much earlier and he found it not possible to reschedule the trip, the official supervising the Chief Minister’s tour programme said. The government had informed the MEA in this regard, and the latter had given its nod.

“The MEA has not sent any advice about the Chief Minister having to stay back and receive the dignitary,” the official observed. Consequently, with the foreign dignitary not coming here, the high tea has been cancelled.

After Mr. Vijay became the Chief Minister four months ago, Mr. Ibrahim, in a post on his social media handle, congratulated him and stated: “Malaysia and Tamil Nadu share deep historical, cultural, and people-to-people ties across generations.”

According to data available on the websites of the Statistics Department of the Malaysian government and the High Commission of India in Kuala Lumpur, people of Indian ethnic origin account for approximately 6.5% of the total population of 34.4 million in the SoutheastAsian country. There are about 2 million Tamil-speaking PIOs (Persons of Indian Origin).