Kathmandu: On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar expressed his happiness at being back in Nepal and looked forward to his upcoming activities there. He was in the nation for two days, co-chairing the seventh Nepal-India Joint Commission meeting with his Nepalese counterpart.
In 2024, this is Jaishankar’s first trip overseas.
Jaishankar and his Nepalese counterpart, N P Saud, will co-chair a meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission.
Saud gave Jaishankar a hearty greeting upon arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
Jaishankar was met at the airport by senior officials, including Foreign Secretary Sewa Lamsal of Nepal.
“I’m glad to be making my first trip back to Nepal in 2024. Anticipating the interactions in the upcoming 48 hours,” Jaishankar wrote on X.
The India-Nepal Joint Commission was founded in 1987 and offers a forum for both countries to examine every facet of their bilateral cooperation.
Nepal is India’s top priority partner in line with its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. High-level exchanges between two friendly and close neighbors have long been customary, according to the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.
Amrit Bahadur Rai, a spokesman for Nepal’s Foreign Ministry, stated that “the entire gamut of Nepal-India relations will be reviewed” during the Joint Commission meeting.
Prior to the visit, Rai told PTI that the primary goals of the bilateral meeting would be to “maximise benefits for both the countries through enhanced partnership between them” and “strengthen Nepal-India relations in the days ahead.”
According to the Foreign Ministry, Jaishankar will pay President Ramchandra Paudel and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” a courtesy call during his visit.
According to sources in the Foreign Ministry, he is also expected to meet with prominent political figures in Nepal.
In honor of Jaishankar and the rest of his delegation, Saud will also throw a banquet.
Before concluding his tour to India, Jaishankar will also open the Tribhuvan University Library in Kirtipur on Friday and oversee other post-earthquake construction projects being carried out in Kathmandu with Indian aid.
Following Prachanda’s third term as prime minister in December 2022, this is Jaishankar’s first official visit to Nepal.
As per the decision made by the leaders of both nations in June of last year, it is anticipated that both parties will sign an agreement on the details that would enable Nepal to export 10,000 megawatts of power to India in the next ten years.
When ‘Prachanda’ visited New Delhi in June 2023, the two sides inked a number of significant agreements, one of which called for raising the city’s import of power from the neighboring nation from 450 megawatts to 10,000 MW over the course of the next ten years.
Given India’s broader strategic interests in the area, Nepal is significant, and the presidents of the two nations have frequently mentioned their long-standing “Roti Beti” friendship.
Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are the five Indian states with whom Nepal shares a border spanning over 1,850 kilometers.
