KATHMANDU, APRIL 15

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has recommended the appointment of Nepali Congress lawmaker NP Saud as the minister of foreign a affairs to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

In the 10-party coalition government, the NC had got the foreign affairs portfolio, but the party did not name all its ministers on March 31 when the PM expanded his Cabinet.

At that time, the NC did not send all its selected ministers to the Cabinet mainly because the rival faction of the party led by Shekhar Koirala had not reached understanding with the establishment faction on the number of ministers to be inducted in the Cabinet from the Koirala faction.

Saud, who hails from the far-western Tarai district of Kanchanpur, is a member of the NC Central Working Committee and is close to Deuba.

Saud, who started his political career from student politics, rose to higher ranks in the party.

A source at the prime minister's private secretariat said the PM wanted to appoint the foreign minister as soon as possible because he is scheduled to visit India immediately after by-elections scheduled for April 23 in Chitwan-2, Bara-2 and Tanahun-1 constituencies.

The source said that the appointment of foreign minister would help expedite preparation for the prime minister's India visit.

The PM is likely to induct more ministers from the Nepali Congress after the April 23 by-election.

During PM Dahal's visit to India, a key agenda the Nepali

delegation will put forth is the import of wheat from India.

Vice-chair of Nepal Flour Association Dinesh Kumar Agrawal said the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies had written a letter to the Government of India seeking import of 300,000 tonnes of wheat from India.

Agrawal said business representatives accompanying the PM during his India visit would put forth their agenda to the Indian side.

Agrawal said the Government of India, which restricted its export of wheat in the face of the Russia-Ukraine war, could easily meet the demands of the Nepali market as Nepal needed very small quantity of the food grain from India.

Agrawal said that India, which had not restricted export of wheat to Nepal immediately after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out when India had restricted wheat export to other countries, later restricted export of wheat to Nepal.

Agrawal said Nepal needed six to seven lakh metric tonnes wheat every year, but domestic production met only 40 per cent of the demand. He said India provided 50,000 tonnes of wheat four months ago, which was a great relief for consumers as supply from the southern border helped reduce the price of flour by Rs 20 per kilogram.

'We can get the required quantity of wheat from India if we negotiate better with the southern neighbour with which we have a unique trade and transit treaty,' Agrawal said and added that import of goods from India was a good thing for Nepal compared to import from third countries as Nepal had to buy goods with US dollars from them.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 16, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.