China on mind: India looks to ramp up outreach to nepal PM

With ‘pro-China’ Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ sworn in as the Prime Minister of Nepal, Beijing is planning to give fresh impetus to its efforts aimed at ramping up strategic ties with Kathmandu. Wary of possible Chinese moves to grow influence in the Himalayan country under the new government led by Prachanda, India has its strategy ready to reach out to Nepal in a swift manner, sources told The Daily Guardian. 

According to sources, China has decided to hold several meetings of its diplomats and ministers with their Nepalese counterparts soon. With this in view, Indian officials and diplomats will soon start interactions with the Nepalese ministers and envoys close to PM Prachanda.  “Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra is likely to visit Kathmandu very soon,” a diplomat told TDG. India’s engagement with the new coalition government of Nepal under PM Prachanda will begin with Kwatra’s visit to the Himalayan nation. Foreign office consultations on both sides are already underway to finalise a date for the foreign secretary’s meetings in Kathmandu, sources said. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is also planning to finalise a date for External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Kathmandu. “After Dahal took over as the new PM of Nepal, MEA officials are in action mode to facilitate India’s big outreach to Kathmandu, Jaishankar and Kwatra’s upcoming visit to Nepal would be part of this,” sources added. 

Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ was on Sunday appointed Nepal’s new Prime Minister. What India cannot shut its eyes to is that Prachanda and his backer KP Sharma Oli have some differences with India previously over territorial issues. 

According to sources, India would like to see the visit of the new Nepalese Prime Minister to New Delhi so as to start engagement with his government soon. In fact, Prachanda had chosen to visit China first after becoming the prime minister of Nepal in 2008. However, after becoming the prime minister for the second term in 2016, Prachanda visited New Delhi first. Sources said that India will provide all necessary economic help to Nepal which is facing a crisis at the moment. “New Delhi will help Kathmandu revive its economy, for which Prachanda’s visit to India would be quite important,”  sources said. India will accelerate financing the projects which are already underway in Nepal where Beijing is eyeing to increase geopolitical influence.