World News | Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali to Visit India: Report

Kathmandu, Dec 3 (PTI) Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali will visit India in mid-December to take part in a key meeting between the two countries, according to a media report.

Gyawali will be the senior most political leader from Nepal to visit New Delhi after bilateral relations soured over a bitter border row, The Kathmandu Post reported.

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The 6th meeting of Nepal-India Joint Commission is expected to take place in New Delhi on December 15-16, the report said on Wednesday.

The Nepal Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the dates of the visit have not been confirmed yet but the preparations of the visit are going on.

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The foreign ministries of the two countries will make the announcement together, he said.

The spokesperson said that the invitation for the visit was handed over by Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla during his Nepal visit last week.

Gyawali will be visiting India on the invitation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the report said.

“I don't know the details about the meeting, but there was a general understanding that Foreign Minister Gyawali will visit India to participate in the joint commission's meeting,” Rajan Bhattarai, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's foreign relations advisor, said on Tuesday.

Another senior Foreign Ministry official said they had given concurrence to the Indian proposal whose formal announcement will be made later through mutual consultation, the news report said.

Gyawali's India visit is expected to reset bilateral exchanges between the two neighbours that had stalled due to a bitter boundary dispute and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shringla's maiden visit to Nepal from November 26-27 was largely aimed at resetting bilateral ties that came under severe strain following a bitter border row.

This was in continuation of the regular exchange of high level visits between the two friendly neighbours, the Nepalese Foreign Ministry said in a statement this week.

Earlier in November, Indian Army chief Gen. M M Naravane travelled to Nepal on a three-day visit during which he held talks with Nepal's top leadership and discussed bilateral relations.

Gen Naravane's three-day visit to Nepal was largely aimed at resetting bilateral ties that came under severe strain following the border row.

Earlier to that, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) chief Samant Kumar Goel visited Nepal in October and paid a courtesy call to Prime Minister Oli.

The ties between the two countries came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.

Nepal protested the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through its territory.

Days later, Nepal came out with the new map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as its territories.

After Nepal released the map, India reacted sharply, calling it a "unilateral act" and cautioning Kathmandu that such "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims will not be acceptable to it.

In its reaction, after Nepal's lower house of parliament approved the bill, India had also termed as untenable the "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims by the neighbouring country.

India had said Nepal's action violates an understanding reached between the two countries to resolve the boundary issues through talks. PTI/SBP AKJ

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)