Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh arrives Friday Indian Foreign and Defence Minister Jaswant Singh arrives Friday for a three-day “goodwill visit” three days after New Delhi formally called bilateral talks to review and revise a five-year trade treaty that expires December 5.
New Delhi has sought quantitative restrictions or increased value added input on five items including vegetable oil that have duty free access to India against Nepalese opposition at the last round of trade talks in Kathmandu this month.
India has invited a Nepali delegation to discuss the issue at the earliest in New Delhi. The visit comes ahead of official-level talks in September to discuss the unilateral construction of a dam across a river by India at Marchawar south of Lumbini that Nepal fears will inundate the birthplace of the Buddha listed as a world heritage site.
Singh will be the senior most Indian official to visit Nepal after the accession of King Gyanendra to the throne on June 4 and the installation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government last month to replace Girija Prasad Koirala’s.
Singh is meeting separately with King Gyanendra and Prime Minister Deuba. Singh’s visit was long overdue. He was to have visited Nepal during Koirala’s tenure to officially inaugurate seven bridges constructed by India completing the Dhalkebar – Mahendranagar section of the Mahendra highway linking east and west Nepal.
Singh visits Nepal as defence needs increase to meet internal security needs to contain a communist insurgency even as Deuba has launched a peace drive to end a communist insurgency that has claimed more than 1,800 lives in nearly six years. Nepal has officially requested New Delhi to curb Maoist activities in India.