Prime Minister of Nepal’s visit to India: significant and fruitful

Context:

• Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli had recently paid a three-day visit to India.

Background:

6^th April, 2018:

• Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli arrived in India on a three-day visit from 6^th to 8^th

Significance of the visit:

• Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s visit is in line with the tradition of a Nepalese premier visiting India on his first overseas trip.

Objective of the visit:

• Further strengthen friendly relations of the two countries.

Major takeaways from the visit of Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to India are:

• Expression of readiness to revise and update the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between India and Nepal.
• Review of the entire spectrum of multifaceted ties between the two countries,
• Appreciation of the growing partnership between the two governments, private sector and at the people’s level,
• Underscoring the importance of regular high-level political exchanges in strengthening bilateral ties.
• Inauguration of the Integrated Check Post at Birgunj in Nepal.
• Please note: The Integrated Check Post Enhance cross-border trade and transit of goods and movement of people
• Enumeration of India’s ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ as a guiding framework for India’s engagement with its neighbors’for a shared vision of inclusive development and prosperity.
• India congratulated the people and the Government of Nepal for successful conduct of local level, federal parliament and first-ever provincial elections in Nepal.
• Three separate joint statements on the following key areas of mutual interest were issued:
  • India-Nepal Statement on New Partnership in Agriculture
  • India-Nepal Statement on Expanding Rail Linkages: Connecting Raxaul in India to Kathmandu in Nepal, and
  • India-Nepal Statement on New Connectivity through Inland Waterways.

Significance of Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s visit to India:

Please note:  

• The trip comes amid a hitch in bilateral ties of India and Nepal.
• P. Sharma Oli had to step down as Nepal’s Prime Minister in 2016 following a blockade on the India-Nepal border.
• Also Nepal decided to join China’s One Belt One Road policy amid India’s concerns that the Chinese initiative would harm its strategic and economic interests.
• Thus, this trip helped clear misunderstandings and mistrust between the two nations.

Conclusion:

• With India remaining committed to strengthening its partnership with Nepal, the visit of Nepal’s Prime Minister to India proves to be significant and fruitful.