India’s Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, met with Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal to talk about bilateral relations and cooperation. Khanal took over as Foreign Minister after Balendra Shah became Nepal’s new Prime Minister on March 27. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nepal mentioned that Ambassador Srivastava visited Khanal to extend greetings from India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and discuss matters related to Nepal-India relations.
Ambassador Srivastava conveyed warm wishes from EAM Jaishankar to Khanal on his new role. The meeting between the two officials involved discussions on various aspects of Nepal-India relations and cooperation. Earlier, on March 27, EAM Jaishankar had congratulated Shisir Khanal on becoming Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and expressed readiness to enhance the partnership between the two countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Balendra Shah on becoming Nepal’s Prime Minister and expressed willingness to collaborate for the mutual benefit of both nations. Shah, in response, thanked PM Modi for his good wishes and expressed eagerness to strengthen the ties between India and Nepal.
The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which won a significant majority in the recent parliamentary elections, elected Balendra Shah as its parliamentary party leader on March 26, leading to his appointment as the 47th Prime Minister of Nepal. Shah, a 35-year-old former Kathmandu Mayor, is one of the youngest Prime Ministers in Nepal’s history.
India and Nepal share strong people-to-people connections and commonalities in religion, language, and culture. India is Nepal’s largest development partner, focusing mainly on infrastructure projects under grants. The Indian Embassy in Nepal highlighted that India has been actively providing development assistance to Nepal since the 1950s.
