If the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas militants does not escalate, Foreign Minister NP Saud is highly likely to visit Washington DC next week. The visit, taking place at the invitation of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is scheduled to start on October 26, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The visit at the foreign minister’s level is taking place after nearly five years. Former foreign minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali travelled to Washington DC in December 2018. During that visit, a statement by the State Department sparked controversy in Kathmandu when it categorically mentioned that Gyawali and his counterpart, Michael R Pompeo, discussed Nepal’s central role in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy.

“We are planning to embark on a bilateral visit to Washington where we will discuss various facets of our bilateral ties including a meeting with Secretary of State Blinken, among other senior US officials,” Saud told the Post.

During the visit, Saud will also meet high-level officials from the White House, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), among others.

Nepal and USAID signed a grant worth $659 million in May 2022, the biggest amount from the US foreign aid agency. And in February this year, during the visit of USAID Administrator Samantha Power, she announced that the agency would provide up to $58.5 million to Nepal to advance democratic progress in Nepal, subject to availability of funds.

According to the US Embassy in Kathmandu, $40.2 million of the announcement is part of the $659 million development objective agreement announced in 2022.

Another bilateral aid of $500 million for two projects under the MCC came into force in August. Nepal has committed to put in an additional $197 million to execute the projects, which are to be completed in five years. Recently MCC Chief Executive Officer Alice Albright visited Kathmandu and sought the government’s assurance for timely completion of the project.

MCC CEO Albright and USAID Administrator Power will call on Minister Saud during his US visit, according to the foreign ministry officials.

Economic cooperation and partnership between Nepal and the US are the key aspects of the visit, said a senior foreign ministry official, adding, “We are looking for more economic, trade, commerce and other kinds of relations and partnership with the US including cooperation between the private sectors of two countries.”

Saud told the Post that he will hold business meetings with the Nepali business community in the US and request them to invest in Nepal. He will also meet Nepali professionals living and working in the US. Similarly, he will interact with the Nepali Embassy’s information technology advisory network.

At the initiation of the Nepali Ambassador to the US Sridhar Khatri, the Nepali Embassy in Washington DC set up the forum to expand information technology-related businesses in Nepal, with the aim of attracting investments and generating more information technology-related jobs.

Saud will also meet the Nepali Caucus, which was formed on June 16 in the US House of Representatives, and representatives of the Non-resident Nepali Association. He will return home on November 2.