Nepal foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali arrived in New Delhi on Thursday on a three-day visit. Gyawali will be co-chairing the sixth session of the India-Nepal Joint Commission Meeting on Friday, which will be hosted by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
"The Joint Commission is an important mechanism that provides the opportunity of reviewing, at a high level, the entire gamut of our bilateral partnership and providing political guidance to further enhance the special and unique ties that we enjoy. We look forward to constructive discussions on the numerous sectors that encompass our bilateral agenda," said Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs.
Gyawali's visit is a forward movement in the bilateral after the acrimony of the past year. It follows on the heels of India's massive outreach to Nepal in the last few months with three high level visits—RAW chief Samanta Kumar Goyal, Army chief M.M. Naravane and foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla.
The visit is also significant given the domestic political turmoil in Nepal after Prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli dissolved the Nepal Parliament on December 20. With fresh elections slated for April -May, Oli assumes immense power in the interim. The move also led to a split in the Nepal Congress Party.
Now, leader of the splinter faction Pushpa Kumar Dahal Prachanda has accused Oli of dissolving the house at the behest of India. This was a retaliation to comments from Oli last year that India was trying to topple his government.
India is keeping a diplomatic silence on the political developments within Nepal, calling it Nepal's internal matter. Clearly, this is one relationship that is requiring very careful handling, specially since China has been seen as openly interfering in Nepal's political matters.
In fact, it appears that India may not even broach sensitive matters like the boundary issues, even though it caused a huge dent in the bilateral last year, leading to Nepal indulging in "cartographic aggression", Srivastava said.
"Our position on the boundary issue is well known. Let me say that the JCM and boundary talks are separate mechanisms."
Meanwhile, Nepal is keen on talking about vaccines. India has assured vaccine cooperation with friends and neighbours. Nepal's ambassador to India Nilambar Acharya has held video meetings with officials of both Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech recently to discuss vaccine availability and supply. Nepal is looking at around 12 million vials for the first round of inoculation.
