Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Minister for Foreign Affairs Shishir Khannal has briefed the National Assembly on his recent visit to India.
Speaking at the meeting of the upper house on Thursday, Khanal said the two sides held high-level discussions on trade, energy, connectivity, water resources, border management, security and people-to-people ties during his visit.
Khanal said a formal cross-border person-to-person digital payment service between Nepal and India was formally launched during the visit, while health and cultural infrastructure rebuilt with Indian assistance as part of post-earthquake reconstruction support were handed over to Nepal. An important Memorandum of Understanding was also exchanged between the Digital Public Infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence Center under Kathmandu University’s School of Engineering and the Digital India Bhashini Division to co-create national digital infrastructure for the ‘Voice First’ language translation platform, he added.
“Concrete discussions on trade and economic cooperation, connectivity, energy partnership, water resources management, shared security, border management, sports and the expansion of people-to-people relations were held during the bilateral talks,” Khannal told the National Assembly. “Both sides expressed commitment to further strengthening bilateral ties, and views were also exchanged on various regional and international issues.”
He said the two countries also reviewed progress on ongoing bilateral cooperation projects and discussed ways to make them more effective.
The foreign minister visited New Delhi from June 5 to 7 at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
