Foreign Ministry officials on Friday have briefed His Majesty King Gyanendra and Her Majesty Queen Komal ahead of Their Majesties’ forthcoming visit to India.
Their Majesties are to embark on an 11-day official visit to India, at the invitation of Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam, next week (Dec. 23). This is the third visit of His Majesty to India in less than three years.
According to reports, the briefing took place for an hour in which Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba-who also holds the foreign affairs portfolio, Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, and senior government officials were also present. Kantipur daily quoted Foreign Ministry sources as saying that during their two-day sojourn in New Delhi, King Gyanendra will meet President Kalam, Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh, leader of the ruling Congress party, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, former prime ministers and other senior officials of the Indian government.
From Delhi, Their majesties will proceed to Indian cities of Deharadun, Lucknow, Patna and Kolkota, capital cities of Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal states of India respectively.
All these four states together share over 1750 km long common, open border with Nepal. His Majesty will meet chief ministers of these states and his discussions will focus on security-related issues, reports said. The itinerary of Their Majesties visit to India is yet to be made public.
Analysts say King Gyanendra’ visit to four states bordering Nepal is taking place at a time when the Indian government has reinforced and strengthened vigilance at the Nepal-India border to control Maoist activities, among others. Authorities from both the countries say there is better coordination between security agencies but they admit that the rebels have been using Indian soil to procure arms, training and as a hide-out.
Indian authorities are also worried about the growing cross-border linkages between Nepali and Maoist groups and what they say spill-over effect of Nepali insurgency into India’s hinterland, also known as the ‘cow belt.’ Nepali authorities, on their part, are looking for sharing of intelligence and cooperation on operational matters with their Indian counterparts, sources said.