India makes efforts to mend ties with Nepal, sends senior BJP leader to Kathmandu

After three back-to-back high-level visits from New Delhi in the last two months, BJP’s senior leader, foreign affairs department chief, Vijay Chauthaiwale visited Kathmandu in an effort to mend ties with Nepal.

At the invitation of Bishnu Poudel, Secretary General of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), Chauthaiwale arrived here on Thursday and held talks with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

At the conference, Oli and Chauthaiwale discussed how to improve people-to-people ties between the two countries, said Rajan Bhattarai, Nepalese Foreign Relations Advisor.

On Friday, Chauthaiwale took Twitter to announce his meeting with Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali, “during which we discussed several issues of mutual interest.”

Sources state that Chauthaiwale is expected to speak with Sher Bahadur Deuba, President of the Nepalese Opposition Congress, and I will meet later.
He will also meet with the leaders of the Janata Samjabadi Party, Mahantha Thakur, Rajendra Mahato and Upendra Yadav, among others.

The NCP leader told that Chauthaiwale’s goal is to broaden and expand contacts with Nepal’s major political movements, in line with the BJP’s intention to enhance party-to-party links.
Another message Chauthaiwale wants to deliver is that whoever is in power in Nepal, the BJP wishes to work with them as they do not have any liking or disliking in political dispensation in Kathmandu, the leader added.

Earlier, the BJP used to send its Secretary-General Ram Madhav to Kathmandu.

After Chauthaiwale became the in-charge of foreign department cell of the BJP, this is his second visit to Kathmandu.

Chauthaiwale’s trip comes after Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Kumar Goel’s visits to the Himalayan nation in the last two months.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Gyawali is slated to embark on a trip to India this month.