In connection with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s upcoming visit to India, New Delhi is sending its top diplomat to Kathmandu to lay the groundwork for the visit.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will arrive in Kathmandu on August 17 for a two-day visit, sources in the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Post. This will be Misri’s second visit to Kathmandu in a year.

Oli, who has been looking forward to visiting New Delhi since becoming prime minister in July last year, is set to embark on an official visit to India on September 16, if the current schedule remains unchanged.

At the invitation of Foreign Secretary Amrit Rai, Misri will make this official visit to Kathmandu to prepare the groundwork and set the tone for the prime minister’s visit, officials at the Prime Minister Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Post.

As of now, the prime minister’s India visit is to last for just two days. However, diplomatic discussions continue to extend it to three or four days, as per the prime minister’s wishes, according to the officials privy to the preparations. If extended, Oli’s visit outside New Delhi will be finalised accordingly. Likewise, he will also hand over the formal invitation to Oli on behalf of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Traditionally, when Nepali prime ministers complete their official engagements in New Delhi, they go outside Delhi on a religious tour, visit cultural heritage sites, or make a trip to some industrial areas. But this time, the visit is initially planned for just two days, so Oli’s travel outside New Delhi is yet to be decided, said the officials.

During Misri’s visit, the two sides will discuss possible agenda for the visit as well as potential understandings, agreements, and instruments to be signed during the prime minister’s visit to India, including plans for Oli’s travel outside Delhi.

Besides meeting his counterpart Rai, the Indian foreign secretary will meet Prime Minister Oli, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba, and other leaders. He will also try to gauge what Kathmandu expects from the visit at a time when India is embroiled in a tariff-related standoff with the US.

Although officials at the political and diplomatic levels have already hinted that the prime minister’s India visit is almost certain, a formal announcement has yet to be made.

“We are preparing for the visit,” said Lok Bahadur Paudel Chettri, spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The prime minister’s visit to India is in the pipeline. It will happen for sure. We will announce the date at an appropriate time,” he added.

As per the current tentative schedule, Prime Minister Oli will embark on an official visit to Delhi on September 16, and he will hold delegation-level talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the next day, which also happens to be Modi’s birthday.

Meanwhile, this will be Misri’s second visit to Kathmandu since he was appointed India’s foreign secretary in July 2024. He visited Kathmandu in August last year on a familiarisation trip during which he met President Ramchandra Paudel, Prime Minister Oli, ministers, leaders, and members of civil society.

Earlier, Oli met Indian Prime Minister Modi in New York and Bangkok, but neither meeting was reportedly very fruitful, according to officials in attendance. Before embarking on the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September last year, Oli had tried to visit India. Although Oli and Modi met on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly, the meeting did not help lay the groundwork for Oli’s visit to Delhi.

Despite setbacks, Oli kept trying to go to Delhi as he wanted to mend ties with India, which had soured since the boundary dispute flared in November 2019. This followed India’s release of a new map by including Nepal’s Kalapani area within Indian territory.

In December last year, Oli visited China on an official trip, which irked Delhi. The signing of the framework agreement on the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing further widened the distance between Oli and Modi.

In April, Oli got another chance to meet Modi in Bangkok on the sidelines of the sixth summit of Bimstec. That meeting was reportedly more cordial than the one in New York, but it did not clear India’s suspicions about Oli, an official at the prime minister’s office told the Post. “But we kept engaging with the Indian side through different means and finally secured the bilateral visit.”

Ahead of the visit, some crucial meetings of bilateral mechanisms have concluded in New Delhi. One is home secretary-level talks, where both sides agreed on the text of a mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreement on criminal matters and to continue discussions on extradition treaty. If preparations are completed, the MLA agreement is likely to be signed during the prime minister’s visit.

Also, Nepal and India recently concluded the seventh meeting of the Boundary Working Group in New Delhi after a long gap, where officials agreed to complete the boundary work along the Nepal-India border, excluding the disputed Susta and Kalapani, within three years. There have been some positive developments in sectors like trade, transit and projects undertaken by India.

“We found the Indian side very positive in these talks,” said a joint secretary who participated in both meetings in Delhi. “With this, we are hopeful that India will take a positive tone during the prime minister’s India visit,” he added.