The Prime Minister of Nepal will call on Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and hold talks with Prime Minister Modi during his visit to India.
New Delhi: At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Nepal counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba accompanied by his spouse Dr Arzu Deuba will pay an official visit to India from April 1 to 3.
"This will be the first bilateral visit abroad by the Prime Minister of Nepal after assuming his office in July 2021. A high-level delegation will accompany the Prime Minister," an MEA statement said.
The Prime Minister of Nepal will call on Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and hold talks with Prime Minister Modi on April 2. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval will call on the Prime Minister of Nepal as well.
Besides official engagements in New Delhi, the Prime Minister of Nepal will visit the holy city of Varanasi too.
"India and Nepal enjoy age-old and special ties of friendship and cooperation. In recent years, the partnership has witnessed significant growth in all areas of cooperation," the statement said.
The upcoming visit will provide an opportunity for the two sides to review this wide-ranging cooperative partnership and to progress it
further for the benefit of the two peoples, the statement said.
As the Modi government's 'Operation Ganga' or good Samaritan mission went international, and several stranded South Asians from countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal were evacuated from Ukraine, Nepal Prime Minister had last month thanked his counterpart, Modi, for evacuating Nepal citizens safely.
PM Deuba was expected in India to attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit earlier this year, and his meeting with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi was also on the cards. But because of the COVID-19 situation, the Gujarat government deferred the Summit, and subsequently, Mr Deuba cancelled his trip.
Nevertheless, the two foreign ministers, Dr S Jaishankar and Dr Narayan Khadka, took up their responsibilities and have carried forward the bilateral engagements. The two foreign ministers held a telephonic conversation and exchanged best wishes on the occasion of New Year 2022.
"During the conversation, the two ministers held discussions on the friendly state of bilateral relations. Matters related to the bilateral exchange of visits and the progress made in the implementation of development projects and post-earthquake reconstructions were discussed during the occasion," Nepal Foreign Ministry has said in a statement.
The Indian government helped in the construction of 50,000 houses in Gorkha for 26,912 beneficiaries, and Nuwakot, where there are 23, 088 beneficiaries. These districts were badly hit due to an earthquake in 2015. The killer quake of 2015 claimed as many as 9,000 lives and brought down more than 8 lakh houses in 32 districts across Nepal.
