KATHMANDU: Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is arriving in Kathmandu on Thursday to participate in the 7th Meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission on the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud.
Established in 1987, the Joint Commission is the highest mechanism between the two countries that reviews all aspects of the bilateral relations. The 6th Meeting of the foreign minister-level meeting was last held in January 2021, in New Delhi, India.
S Jaishankar and the Indian delegation will land in Kathmandu on a special aircraft on Thursday morning. Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, Anurag Srivastava, Nepal desk chief at the Indian External Affairs Ministry, and various other high-ranking officials will be in the delegation.
Jaishnkar will party courtesy calls on President Ram Chandra Poudel and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal before attending the joint commission meeting although courtesy meetings are typically scheduled after the main discussions.
“External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar will visit Kathmandu from January 4-5 on the invitation of the Foreign Minister of Nepal, NP Saud, for co-chairing the 7th meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission. The visit is in keeping with the tradition of high-level exchanges between two close and friendly neighbors,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The two sides are expected to sign an agreement to formalize the export of 10,000 MW of hydropower to India and also renew the agreement to implement India’s High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP).
The agreement to implement HICDP expired in August. India has proposed to increase the project size to Rs 250 million. Although the government had decided to integrate Indian assistance into the federal government’s ‘budgetary system,’ India has advocated for a separate procedure to enhance its effectiveness. This year, a total of 67 projects worth around Rs 3 billion are under implementation under the HICDP.
The ministers will also remotely inaugurate three trans-border power transmission lines: Raxaul-Parwanipur, Kushaha-Kataiya, and Nautanwa-Mainahiya.
Jaishankar will also attend a reception hosted by Minister Saud in honor of the visiting Indian delegates. He is scheduled to inaugurate the library building at Tribhuvan University, an earthquake reconstruction project supported by the Indian government, on Friday morning before flying back to New Delhi.
File Photo
Himal Press
03 Jan 2024
