New Delhi, Feb 10 (UNI) – Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra will be on a two-day official visit to Nepal from Monday, during which he will hold talks with his Nepalese counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal on the bilateral multifaceted cooperation, an official statement said on Friday.
Foreign Secretary Kwatra is visiting Nepal at the invitation of his Nepalese counterpart.
This will be the first standalone visit of the Indian Foreign Secretary to Nepal since he assumed charge of his office. Foreign Secretary was India’s ambassador to Nepal from May 2020 to April last year before his appointment to his current post.
“The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries and the priority India attaches to its relations with Nepal under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. During the visit, the two Foreign Secretaries will hold discussions on the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between India and Nepal,” the statement said.
“India has historical and civilizational linkages with Nepal, and bilateral cooperation between the two countries has strengthened in the recent years, with several major infrastructure and cross-border connectivity projects completed with India’s assistance. The visit will be an opportunity to further advance our bilateral ties,” the statement added.
Nepalese English daily Kathmandu Post said that during his visit the Indian Foreign Secretary will extend an invitation to Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to visit India at a convenient date.
It quoted Nepalese Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal as saying: “We have several mechanisms at different levels including at the foreign secretary level. The Indian foreign secretary will meet his counterpart where the two sides will discuss various issues and review the status of bilateral initiatives.”
Soon after landing in Kathmandu, Kwatra will hold a foreign secretary-level meeting with Bharat Raj Paudyal, followed by a meeting with Foreign Minister Paudyal.
The two foreign secretaries will review progress made in Indian-funded projects in Nepal and discuss various bilateral issues, according to Nepali officials.
Foreign Secretary Kwatra will also call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari, and former prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba and KP Sharma Oli, among others.
The Nepalese Foreign Secretary had visited New Delhi in September last year.
The two top diplomats will also review progress on various initiatives and announcements made during the high-level visits of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to each other’s countries last year.
Deuba as prime minister had visited India last April while Modi came to Nepal in May.
‘On behalf of the Indian prime minister, Kwatra will also extend an invitation to Prime Minister Dahal to visit India at a convenient date,” the daily said quoting a Nepali diplomat.
Prime Minister Dahal had told a group of journalists on January 15 that his first foreign visit would be to India.
The date of PM Dahal’s Delhi visit will be decided after Kwatra’s visit, Kathmandu Post said quoting officials.
In 2008, after being elected prime minister for the first time, Dahal broke with the tradition of Nepali prime ministers visiting New Delhi first, and instead off to Beijing to take part in the Summer Olympics inauguration ceremony that year.
But upon his return from Beijing, Dahal tried to control the perceived damage done in Nepal-India relations and said the Beijing visit was not official and that his first ‘official visit’ would still be to New Delhi.
But during his second stint as prime minister, Dahal started his foreign visit from India in September 2016.
In July last year, Dahal (who was not PM at the time) visited India at the invitation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda. Dahal had at the time also met External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval besides the BJP president.
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