Nepal and India have begun discussion to exchange visits at the presidential level within this year.

It is not immediately clear if President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will go to India before President Pranab Mukherjee visits Nepal. 

On behalf of President Bhandari, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, during his India visit in February, extended an invitation to Mukherjee to visit Nepal.

“We are working to make Mukherjee’s visit possible within 2016,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa, who is on a three-day visit to India, told the Post.

Thapa also held discussions with Indian officials about Mukherjee’s visit.  The Indian president’s five-year tenure ends in July next year.

“We have been regularly raising the agenda of President Mukherjee’s visit to Nepal,” said former Nepali Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay, who was recalled last month.

After KR Narayanan’s visit in 1997, there has not been any visit by the Indian president to Nepal. Then Nepali ambassador to India Bhesh Bahadur Thapa played a vital role in making Narayanan’s visit possible.

“When I submitted the credentials to Narayanan, he had expressed his commitment to making his first visit to Nepal. But he had to go on a visit of Europe first,” ex-ambassador Thapa told the Post, adding that his familiarity with Narayanan had been crucial for arranging the visit.

In 2014, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, visited Nepal after 17 years. Nepal has been urging India for regular exchange of high-level visits.