India-Nepal ties are back on track

Foreign Secretary to visit Kathmandu on Nov 26

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, November 10:

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla will visit Nepal this month-end for the delayed formal dialogue between the two countries, according to informed sources.

Analysts see this as a sign that New Delhi is willing to go an extra mile to improve bilateral ties that had nosedived earlier this year.

The decision to send the foreign secretary comes days after Indian Army Chief General M.M Naravane’s visit to Kathmandu, during which he was conferred the honorary rank of general of Nepali Army.

When Gen Naravane met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the latter had underscored that the two countries could resolve all problems between them through dialogue since India and Nepal have a long-standing special relationship.

Oli had faced resistance within his cabinet to Gen Naravane’s visit but had dealt with it, by taking over the defence portfolio from deputy prime minister Ishwar Pokhrel.

Gen Naravane’s visit was crucial, because he was the first one within the Indian government to react to protests by Nepal’s government over a border road India built in Uttarakhand. In May, he had said it was very possible that Nepal had raised the issue at someone else’s behest. The remark was interpreted to imply that Beijing could have prodded Nepal to create a new boundary dispute with India.

People familiar with the discussions said Prime Minister Oli did make a pointed reference to the fallout of the row over Nepal’s political map, describing it as a “misunderstanding”. At the same time, he did underline that Nepal takes its sovereignty very seriously, a remark that is being seen in New Delhi to explain his decision to issue a fresh political map.

During his two-day visit on November 26 and 27, Shringla hold meetings with his counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal (who took charge just last month) and Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali. He will call on President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister Oli.

Shringla’s conversations in Nepal are also expected to lead both sides to finalise the schedule for the meeting of the Joint Technical Level Boundary Committee.

“This is not a single-agenda visit,” a senior diplomat said. The visit could see India committing to help Nepal with coronavirus vaccines once its production starts. The two sides will also discuss the revival of the Pancheshwar multi-purpose project on river Mahakali as well as other hydro-electric projects.

India had been holding off on Harsh Shringla’s visit for most of this year to convey New Delhi’s displeasure over the communist government’s move to issue a new political map that included the Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani areas from India’s Uttarakhand state. New Delhi had rejected the map, brushing away what it had said was Nepal’s effort at a cartographic expansion.

Nepal had been working at mollifying New Delhi for some time, and withdrew school textbooks that contained the new political map. Last month, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) Chief Samant Kumar Goel had done the groundwork for restoring ties during his visit to the Himalayan nation.