In a major breakthrough in the Indo-Nepal ties, Nepal’s foreign minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali will take a sojourn to India in December. Earlier, this year, India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla went forward to make a visit to the neighbouring country.
“Foreign Secretary conveyed an invitation, from External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to Hon’ble Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali to visit India for the next Joint Commission Meeting.” Said a release from the Indian mission during Foreign Secretary’s visit.
The joint commission meeting, which alternates between the two countries, will take place in New Delhi this year. The fifth Joint Commission meeting was held in August 2019 in Kathmandu with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visiting the country.
India has been involved in a number of projects in the country and plans to operationalize Jayanagar-Kurtha cross-border rail line. Earlier both countries inaugurated the Motihari–Amlekhgunj petroleum pipeline, the first cross country pipeline in south Asia.
The pipeline can carry two million metric tonnes of petroleum products into Nepal and so far has led to a saving of over 800 million Nepali rupees.
The visit comes even as this year saw strained ties between New Delhi and Kathmandu after the Nepal government led by PM KP Sharma Oli issued a new map of the country that showed Indian territories as Nepali territories. This had irked New Delhi, which called the development “Unjustified Cartographic Assertion”.
Chinese influence is also another issue that New Delhi is closely watching. Chinese envoy in Nepal has been openly and unabashedly engaging in the crisis on the ruling Nepal Communist Party, something that has been under the scanner in the country itself.
