Kathmandu, August 21
Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar is arriving in Kathmandu on an official visit on Wednesday afternoon. The diplomat-turned-politician is scheduled to call on Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today itself.
The minister will land at the Tribhuvan International Airport after 12 pm and will meet the PM at 2 pm, according to sources.
Following the meeting with the prime minister, Jaishankar will go to Hotel Yak and Yeti, where the governments of Nepal and India are hosting a meeting of Nepal-India Joint Commission. Whereas Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation to the meeting his Nepali counterpart Pradeep Kumari Gyawali will be there from the Nepali side.
The meeting will conclude on Thursday. It will discuss issues related to bilateral relations, economic cooperation, trade and transit, energy, water resources, culture and education among others, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Jaishankar will pay a courtesy call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari at her office at 10:30 am tomorrow. He will go back to Delhi tomorrow itself.
This is Jaishankar’s first visit to Nepal as a minister. The then foreign secretary of India, Jaishankar had come to Kathmandu in September 2015 as a special representative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a request to include India’s concerns in the constitution. Major parties of Nepal did not heed his request, which led the country to a months-long border blockade.
