Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal Arzu Rana Deuba. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Nepal awaits an invitation for its Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to visit India, Nepali Foreign Minister Arzu Deuba Rana said on Saturday, February 22, 2025. Speaking to The Hindu, she expressed her hope that Mr. Oli and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet on the sidelines of the upcoming BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok in April and that Mr. Oli would be invited to New Delhi in the “first half” of 2025.
The comments by Ms. Rana, who has visited Delhi twice since the Oli Government took charge in July 2024, indicate a strain in ties between Delhi and Kathmandu over the Modi Government’s unusual delay in hosting the Nepali PM. After sensing a delay from India, Mr. Oli travelled to Beijing in November 2024, which is believed to have further broadened the divide.
Ms. Rana, however, said she had held cordial talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference in Muscat last week, where they discussed a number of other issues, including on quality control clearances for Nepali goods, progress on hydropower projects, and a long-pending resolution on overflight rights for Nepali airports at Pokhara and Bhairahawa.
‘PM busy with State polls’
When asked about whether the two Foreign Ministers had agreed on a specific date for Mr. Oli to travel to India, Ms. Rana said that he would visit “whenever he is invited”, indicating that no invitation has been proffered so far. “That’s the only answer I can give, and I hope it’s going to be in the near future,” Ms. Rana told The Hindu in an interview in Muscat.
When asked why there had been such a delay in the traditional invitation, although Mr. Modi and Mr. Oli had met in person in New York in September 2024, Ms. Rana cited State Assembly elections in India. “I think primarily what I heard was because the Indian Prime Minister was busy with all the elections, and hopefully, by the first half of this year, Prime Minister Oli will have a visit,” she added. The two leaders will both attend the next BIMSTEC summit between April 2 and April 4 in Thailand, and are expected to meet there as well.
‘Still non-aligned despite BRI’
Ms. Rana dismissed suggestions that India’s reticence stemmed from Mr. Oli’s visit to China and the announcement of a Framework Agreement for Belt and Road Initiative Cooperation there, saying that India had not objected formally to any of China’s BRI projects for infrastructure, including ports, roads, railways, power grids, and telecommunication thus far. India opposes the BRI, although many South Asian neighbours including Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Pakistan are part of the BRI network.
“We have not signed anything that says Nepal has strategically now moved away from its non-aligned status and moved towards any country. And Nepal can never afford to do that,“ Ms. Rana said, defending the Nepali government’s decision to join the BRI in 2017. When asked if the BRI agreements would involve more indebtedness to China, she said that this is a “non-relevant” issue, as the Nepali government would only enter into sovereign projects on an aid or grant basis.
“China has not really told us you have to take loan from us. We already have quite a high debt service ratio, so I don’t think we’ll be going in for any loans, per se, but the fact is that the private sector can take loans, if they want to,” Ms. Rana said.
Overflight rights resolution
Confirming that India has raised objections to bringing hydropower from projects run by China onto its Cross-Border South Asian Energy Grid, Ms. Rana said that the matter has been resolved as there are enough river basins and projects for different agencies to produce hydel power in Nepal.
Significantly, the Nepali Foreign Minister held out hope for a possible “win-win” solution to the issue of overflight rights as well. India has thus far not cleared overflights for foreign airlines wishing to travel to Nepali airports in Pokhara and Bhairahawa (Sidharth Nagar), ostensibly due to security reasons. However, Ms. Rana said that she hoped for a resolution by using higher altitude flight paths that would not pose a security issue for India, reserving lower altitude flights for regional airports.
On trade, she said that Nepali exporters were now adhering to Indian standards by building local testing facilities. The issues faced at border points by Nepali exporters trying to clear goods meant for Indian markets will soon be dealt with, she added.
Published – February 22, 2025 09:05 pm IST
