KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 26

India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who arrived here today on a two-day visit, held a bilateral meeting with his Nepali counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal.

They reviewed several aspects of Nepal-India relations covering trade, transit, connectivity, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, investment, culture, and people to people relations, according to a press release issued by Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Shringla and Paudyal discussed ways to strengthen cultural and civilisational bonds that exist between the two countries and build on the solid foundation of the multifaceted friendly relations for the benefit of the two countries and their peoples.

The two sides also reviewed with satisfaction the progress made on bilateral cooperation projects, including key connectivity projects and post-earthquake reconstruction work.

They also discussed boundary dispute between the two countries.

The two sides shared their experiences on efforts made to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

They discussed how Nepal could benefit from the progress made by India in the development of COV- ID-19 vaccines. Paudyal thanked the Indian government for the supply of medical equipment to combat COVID-19.

MoFA said the meeting was held in an atmosphere of utmost cordiality and friendship.

Paudyal hosted a working luncheon in honour of Shringla and the members of his delegation.

Shringla also met President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali and discussed matters of mutual interest.

He handed over 2,000 vials of Remdesivir to Gyawali in a ceremony held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After meeting Paudyal, Shringla said, “We had a useful and productive exchange.

A large number of issues of bilateral cooperation that we went through shows the multi-faceted and comprehensive nature of our cooperation. We both agreed on steps to advance some of the areas of cooperation. We have good progress on the commitment made by our leadership.

We are looking at some other initiatives that could be taken.”

Indian Embassy in Nepal tweeted that both sides appreciated the progress made on the numerous bilateral initiatives and projects.

It was agreed to take more steps to advance mutual cooperation.

Shringla is the second high profile Indian government official to visit Nepal in recent weeks.

Earlier, Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane was in Nepal from November 4 to 6.

Upon his arrival he told mediapersons at Tribhuvan International Airport that he wanted to come earlier also, but because of the COVID crisis he could not do so. “I am happy to be here. We have strong relationship and our endeavour is to see how we can take our relationship further,” he said.

Shringla responded in Nepali to mediapersons’ queries and said India had close ties with Nepal and his talks with Nepali dignitaries would focus on strengthening further the close bilateral ties.

He said the Indian prime minister had committed to building 50,000 houses in Gorkha district, the epicentre of the 2015 earthquakes.

He added that 40,000 houses had already been built.

He said he would inaugurate three schools built with Indian assistance tomorrow.

He added that India had renovated a Buddhist monastery in Manang district which he would inaugurate tomorrow. Shringla said he would give a lecture on India-Nepal cooperation tomorrow.