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In a motion of Kathmandu’s deepening information dialog with India, Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval connected Friday (June 5, 2026).
Mr. Khanal is the archetypal Minister from Prime Minister Balen Shah’s Cabinet to sojourn India astatine an authoritative level, since Nepal’s caller authorities was elected successful March to regenerate the interim administration that had taken complaint aft the September 2025 Gen-Z uprising against erstwhile Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and his government.
Expansive agenda
“With Nepal, we person an expansive agenda, from improvement practice to people-to-people ties to commercialized and investment. All these ties volition beryllium discussed erstwhile the 2 Foreign Ministers meet. But connected our side, we are keen to further fortify this multifaceted concern that we person with Nepal,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, announcing Mr. Khanal’s accomplishment astatine an authoritative briefing.
Earlier, Nepal’s Foreign Affairs Ministry had said that Mr. Khanal’s sojourn to India betwixt June 5 and 7 would heighten practice “across cardinal areas including trade, investment, connectivity, energy, and people-to-people ties”. Mr. Khanal had met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Mauritius betwixt April 10 and 12 connected the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference.
After gathering Mr. Doval, the visiting Foreign Minister was hosted astatine a circular array treatment organised by the India Foundation connected Friday evening.
Spotlight connected borderline disputes
Ahead of the visit, Mr. Khanal met seasoned Nepali diplomat Bhek Bahadur Thapa who has served arsenic the coordinator of the Nepal-India Eminent Persons Group (EPG). Mr. Thapa besides handed implicit the cardinal of a container containing an EPG study prepared a fewer years ago, which had not been submitted to the governmental leaderships of Nepal and India. The EPG was formed aft the blockade of 2015-2016, arsenic a mechanics to sermon a wide scope of issues including borderline disputes.
The quality implicit Kalapani-Lipulek-Limpiyadhura was raised successful the Nepali parliament past week erstwhile the Nepali Prime Minister mentioned it, portion saying that some India and Nepal are successful concern of each other’s territory. While Mr. Shah’s critics successful Kathmandu protested his admittance that Nepal besides holds Indian territory, his assertion that the United Kingdom and China are parties to this borderline quality besides ttracted a rebuttal from the MEA.
Reviving dialogue
The past Nepali Foreign Minister to sojourn India was Arzu Rana Deuba, who visited Delhi successful August 2024 and past again successful December that twelvemonth to enactment successful a deliberation vessel event. The downfall of the Oli authorities had paused high-level diplomatic engagements portion Nepal was governed by the interim arrangement.
The Hindu had earlier reported that attempts were made to restart a diplomatic dialog successful the 2nd week of May erstwhile Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was expected to sojourn Kathmandu. However, that sojourn did not instrumentality spot owed to Mr. Shah’s caller protocol prioritising meetings with his governmental counterparts portion avoiding meetings with visiting diplomats successful Kathmandu. He had besides announced that helium volition not sojourn overseas destinations during the archetypal twelvemonth of his government.
Earlier this week, Rabi Lamichhane, chairperson of Nepal’s ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), besides visited India and was hosted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mr. Lamichhane met Prime Minister Narendra Modi arsenic good arsenic Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Doval. He besides visited the temple of Lord Ram successful Ayodhya during his stay.
