President Ram Nath Kovind will embark on a visit to Iceland,Switzerland and Slovenia from Monday during which he is expected to brief the top leadership in those countries on India’s “national concerns”, especially in view of terror incidents this year, including the Pulwama attack.

Asked if President Kovind during his talks with the leaders there will also brief them on Kashmir, ministry of external affairs secretary(west) A Gitesh Sarma did not give a direct reply and said “when leaders meet,there is a structure in which regional, international, global, multilateral and issues of national concern” are discussed.

Ahead of the presidential visit, the Swiss government in are lease said the situation in Kashmir will be among the issues that will be onthe agenda during the meetings between the top leadership and Kovind.

Briefing reporters on the nine-day visit, Sarma said, “Wealways use these opportunities to brief each other. Just as we have issues,each of these countries have their own concerns. So this is a very good settingto hear it at the highest level what our perspective is and what is theirs. So,we will certainly use these opportunities as we can to acquaint them of ourconcerns.”

On J&K, these countries are very sympathetic to Indiawith respect to the terror incidents earlier in this year, he said and addedthat they all understand that we all need to work together.

“This year also in the context of the Pulwama attack, theirsympathies have been with India. Even though they have themselves not facedsuch challenges as we continue to face, they are nevertheless aware that theyneed to work closely with india,” he said. There is a very good understandingon most of these issues, he said.

President Kovind will first arrive in Iceland on September 9and will hold talks with Iceland President Gudni Johannesson and Iceland PrimeMinister Katrín Jakobsdottir. The President’s next stop will Switzerland fromSeptember 11-15 where he will meet President Ueli Maurer and members of theSwiss cabinet, Sarma said. He will arrive in Slovenia on September 15. Duringhis visit there, Kovind will hold extensive discussions with SlovenianPresident Borut Pahor and Slovenian PM Marjan Šarec.