by Anil Giri in Kathmandu Post, May 20, 2023
Five months after assuming office in December last year, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is all set to begin his maiden visit to India. He starts his sojourn on May 31.
Senior government officials confirmed to the Post that Dahal will undertake a four-day official visit to the southern neighbour at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. Dahal is expected to call on Indian President Droupadi Murmu and hold delegation-level talks with Modi on June 1 in New Delhi.
Signing of some agreements, a memorandum of understanding, and a groundbreaking ceremony are expected after delegation-level talks between Dahal and Modi on June 1. Visit preparations are underway on both sides, officials said.
As the prime minister wants to make his India visit ‘special’, some remarkable agreements will be reached during the trip, said two officials privy to the developments.
Chief Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi is coordinating with agencies concerned on behalf of the prime minister in order to finalise the agenda, agreements and MoUs to be signed during the visit, according to the officials.
Some Indian ministers including the Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will call on the prime minister the same day. Dahal will then take part in some functions in New Delhi before leaving for Mumbai. After completing his engagements in Mumbai, the prime minister will return to Kathmandu on June 3, said officials privy to the visit.
“I can confirm that the prime minister will go on the India visit immediately after presenting the budget in Parliament,” Foreign Minister NP Saud told the Post, adding that his ministry is working with other line ministries to determine the visit’s agenda. Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat will present the fiscal budget on May 29.
After the visit’s confirmation, Saud consulted former foreign secretaries and Nepali ambassadors to India on Thursday and former foreign ministers on Friday where he solicited their views on possible talking points with the Indian side.
Former foreign ministers Sujata Koirala, Raghubir Mahaseth, Prakash Chandra Lohani, and Bhekh Bahadur Thapa were present at the meeting on Friday while former ambassadors Lokraj Baral, Dinesh Bhattarai, Durga Bhattarai, Madhu Raman Acharya, and Madan Kumar Bhattarai were in attendance in the discussion on Thursday, according to the private secretariat of Minister Saud.
Almost all those we consulted advised us to take up matters related to trade, commerce, water resources, transit, border and boundary, tourism, and strengthening cultural and people-to-people ties, said Saud.
“I asked whether the visit is just a goodwill one or if it has a specific agenda and purpose,” former minister Lohani said. “But the foreign minister and foreign ministry officials did not share any specific purpose.”
“I strongly advised them to raise the issue of the eminent persons’ group (EPG) report on Nepal-India relations and ask why the Indian prime minister is not receiving it. The report’s submission is most important and the prime minister should take it up strongly,” said Lohani. “Besides the EPG report, I also gave feedback on issues like water resources, trade, border and boundary.”
Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, another former minister and ambassador to India, who is also the coordinator of the eminent persons’ group on Nepal-India relations, also advised Minister Saud to take up the EPG report with the Indian prime minister and create a positive environment for its timely receipt.
Nepal and India formed an eight-member EPG panel in 2016 to suggest a new blueprint for Nepal-India relations in the changed global and regional contexts. The panel readied its joint report in July 2018. Due to some reservations over the panel’s recommendations, the Indian side is still considering whether and when to receive the report. While finalising it, the panel had agreed that the report would be first received by the Indian Prime Minister Modi.
In a question-answer session in Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Dahal pointed out that he cannot say anything about the EPG report before his India visit. “Before my India visit, I cannot say whether the EPG report will be received [by the two governments],” said Dahal while responding to a question by UML’s lawmaker Raghuji Pant. “Whether India will receive the report or not, will be known after the visit. Whether we should receive the report will be decided only after talking to the Indian side.”
https://kathmandupost.com/national/2023/05/20/prime-minister-pushpa-kamal-dahal-to-visit-india-from-may-31-to-june-3
