Indian Foreign Secretary Vinaya Mohan Kwatra is arriving in Nepal on coming Monday.
According to sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kwatra is coming on a two-day official visit to Nepal.
With visits to Nepal from America and Europe increasing, of late, southern neighbor India is also sending a diplomat on an official visit to Nepal.
Two top US officials have recently visited Nepal. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, visited last week and USAID Administrator Samantha Power who came to Nepal on Tuesday returned on Wednesday. Nuland held meetings with high ranking Nepali officials including the prime minister during her visit.
Similarly, during her two-day visit, Power held meetings with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, ‘Prachanda’, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel and Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paydyal.
Similarly, US Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA), Afreen Akhter, is arriving in Kathmandu on Monday. Kwatra will also arrive on the same day, Akhter lands in Kathmandu.
Likewise, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, returned home after conducting a one-day Nepal visit on Wednesday.
The increasing number of visits to Nepal from America and Europe seems to have caused a sense of alarm in New Delhi.
“The India government is making preparations to send Foreign Secretary on a Nepal visit. The visit will be announced today,” said a source at the Foreign Ministry.
He is going to be the top Indian official to visit Nepal following the formation of the new government led by Prime Minister Prachanda.
He is coming to Nepal at the invitation of Nepal Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal.
Paudyal had visited India at the invitation of his Indian counterpart on September 13-14.
During his Nepal visit, Kwatra will meet with President Bidya Bhandari, Prime Minister Prachanda, Foreign Minister Bimala Rai, CPN (UML) Chairman KP Sharma Oli, and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba among others.
