Miscellaneous
Indian prez to visit Nepal from Nov 2
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee will be arriving in Nepal on November 2 on a three-day visit, government officials confirmed on Monday.Indian President Pranab Mukherjee will be arriving in Nepal on November 2 on a three-day visit, government officials confirmed on Monday.
Senior Foreign Ministry told the Post that the Indian President, at the invitation of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, would visit Nepal immediately after the Dipawali festival. Both Nepal and India have started groundwork for Mukherjee’s visit, said the officials. After Mukherjee’s visit to Nepal, President Bhandari will embark on a state visit to India, the officials added.
Mukherjee’s visit to Nepal in November will be first by an Indian president in almost two decades. Then President of India, KR Narayanan, had last visited Nepal in 1997.
Earlier in February, then prime minister KP Sharma Oli during his visit to India had, on behalf of President Bhandari, extended an invitation to Indian President Mukherjee to visit Nepal. But the Oli government in May abruptly cancelled President Bhandari’s scheduled visit to India due to “lack of preparations and pressing domestic issues”, as a result there was uncertainty over the Indian president’s visit to Nepal.
Kathmandu saw a regime change in August and Pushpa Kamal Dahal became the new prime minister. Immediately after taking office, Dahal had sent his two envoys to New Delhi and Beijing and both of them had extended invitations to the heads of state of both the countries to visit Nepal.
During Prime Minister Dahal’s visit to India last month, officials from both the countries had held talks about high-level exchanges.