In a bid to give further boost to ties between New Delhi and Kathmandu, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra will visit Nepal early next week. Kwatra will be visiting Kathmandu on 13 and 14 February at the invitation of his counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal. Paudyal, who visited New Delhi in mid-2022, had extended an invitation to Kwatra for the Nepal visit.
FS Kwatra’s visit to Nepal acquires importance as it is taking place amid reports about China renewing its bid to expand its footprints in the Himalayan nation after the coalition led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and KP Oli came to power in Kathmandu. Beijing is reviving the project to lay a cross-border railway track in what is being viewed as a Chinese bid to expand geopolitical influence in Nepal.
There is no denying that Prime Minister Prachand has been known for his China-tilt. Therefore, security strategists and diplomats in Delhi are of the view that China would spare no effort to use proximity with the new regime in Kathmandu to push for its assertive agenda in Nepal. “With this in the background, Kwatra’s visit to Nepal is quite significant, and definitely China would also be included in the agenda to be discussed during his meetings in Kathmandu,” diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian after the foreign secretary’s upcoming visit to Nepal was announced officially. Kwatra and his Nepalese counterpart would discuss the ways to advance overall cooperation between the two countries. It is expected that Kwatra will also discuss with his Nepalese interlocutors the possibility of a visit to India by Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. In December, the former Maoist leader became Nepal’s prime minister for a third time.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Kwatra will visit Nepal from February 13 to 14 at the invitation of his Nepalese counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal. “This will be the first stand-alone visit of the Foreign Secretary to Nepal since he assumed charge,” it said. Kwatra was serving as India’s envoy to Nepal before he assumed charge as the foreign secretary on May 1 last year. Needless to say, Nepal is quite important for India in the context of its overall strategic interests in the region. The country shares a border of more than 1,850 km with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Land-locked Nepal relies heavily on India for the transportation of goods and services. “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,” the MEA said, adding that the two foreign secretaries will hold discussions on the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between India and Nepal. “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 MEA said in a statement. “The visit will be an opportunity to further advance our bilateral ties,” it said.
According to sources, Kwatra will formally extend an invitation to Dahal to visit India. Discussion would take place to finalise the date and other details related to PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to Delhi. Dahal visited India last July at the request of BJP national president JP Nadda. He had then met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The US has also invited Prachand to the Summit for Democracy to be hosted by President Joe Biden late March. This would be the second such summit to be held on March 29-30. Biden’s invitation to Dahal is significant amid growing China and US rivalry, sources said.