Kathmandu/New Delhi:
On his maiden foreign trip after assuming charge, Nepal Prime Minister K P Oli will arrive in India on a six-day visit today during which he will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on a range of key issues including matters relating to the newly adopted Constitution of the Himalayan nation.
It will be the first bilateral visit by a Nepalese Prime Minister here after the trip by the then premier Baburam Bhattarai in October 2011. Oli’s predecessor Sushil Koirala had attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May 2014.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said a range of issues, including matters relating to citizenship to Indian-origin people, will figure in the talks between the two sides.
It is expected that India will ask Nepal to complete the “unfinished task” of making the new Nepalese Constitution more inclusive to address the concerns of the Indian-origin Madhesi community.
Oli will be accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel and Home Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet among others. The Chief Executive of the National Reconstruction Authority of Nepal and 13 MPs from various political parties will also accompany Oli.
The Nepalese Prime Minister will stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Oli will hold extensive talks with Modi on Saturday on entire gamut of bilateral ties following which both sides are expected to sign a number of agreements.
Two MoUs—one on the USD 1 billion line of credit that India has already committed to Nepal during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit and another on USD 1 billion that India had pledged during External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s trip to Kathmandu for the country’s post-earthquake reconstruction—are likely to be signed during Oli’s visit.
Asked about essential supplies from India to Nepal, hit by a prolonged blockade by the Madhesi community, Swarup said it has almost been normalised. He said yesterday 1608 trucks had gone to Nepal from India.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be among those who will call on the Nepalese Prime Minister.
Oli will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari.
He will visit Dehradun on Sunday to inspect the Tehri hydel power project and will return here in the evening.
On Monday, he will address the Indian Council for World Affairs and attend a business meeting.
He will leave for Bhuj in Gujarat on Tuesday to have a first hand experience of the earthquake reconstruction work there. Nepal was struck by a devastating quake in April last year and is currently in the process of carring out reconstruction work.
The same day he will leave for Mumbai from Gujarat and will meet Maharashtra Governor. He will leave for Nepal from Mumbai on February 24.
