Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra is paying an official visit to Nepal on February 13-14

Kathmandu:  Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra is arriving in Kathmandu on Monday on a three-day official visit at the invitation of Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal.

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’.

This will be the first stand-alone visit of the Foreign Secretary to Nepal since he assumed charge.  Kwatra was serving as India’s envoy to Nepal before he assumed charge as the foreign secretary on May 1 last year.

Nepal is important for India in the context of its overall strategic interests in the region, and the leaders of the two countries have often noted the age-old “Roti Beti” relationship.

Nepal 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 of India said.

It said 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.