The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started groundwork for the India visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli that is slated to begin on September 16. In this connection, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is arriving on a two-day visit to Kathmandu.

A diplomatic team led by Misri is scheduled to land in Kathmandu on Sunday in an Indian military jet.

On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held consultations with different line ministries and sought the status of India-funded projects in Nepal, bottlenecks that these projects are currently facing and possible new projects that can be discussed during the visit, said a foreign ministry official.

It was a preliminary discussion when secretaries and joint-secretaries from different line ministries offered briefings on the status of ongoing India-funded projects and about identifying new areas of cooperation, said a joint-secretary privy to the visit preparations.

According to high-level sources, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority granted permission on Tuesday for a diplomatic flight by the Indian Air Force.

A few days ago, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had requested approval for the diplomatic flight. As per the sources, the Indian Air Force’s business jet Embraer will arrive in Kathmandu from Delhi at 1 PM on Sunday. The aircraft will return to Delhi only on Monday afternoon.

Passengers on such diplomatic flights are required to pay service charges. However, Tribhuvan International Airport waives landing, parking, and navigational fees for them.

During the visit, Misri will call on Prime Minister Oli and hand over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s formal invitation for the visit.

Oli is scheduled to visit India on September 16 while bilateral talks between Oli and Modi could take place at some place outside of Delhi on September 17 which, coincidentally, is also Modi’s birthday.

The two prime ministers are unlikely to meet in New Delhi’s Hyderabad House this time, according to foreign ministry officials. The Indian side is looking for some alternative venues for the bilateral talks and has communicated the same to Kathmandu.

Usually, Hyderabad House is the venue for official talks during India visits of foreign dignitaries. But this time, India wants to hold the bilateral talks outside Delhi. Some potential venues have been informally shared with Kathmandu. But the final decision on the venue will be made during Misri’s Kathmandu visit.

Though preliminary homework for Oli’s India visit has begun, the final agendas will be ascertained only after the Indian foreign secretary holds meetings with Prime Minister Oli, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba and Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai, among others.

“We will get some sense of how the Indian side is looking at Prime Minister Oli’s visit after the Indian foreign secretary meets our prime minister, foreign minister, foreign secretaries and others,” another foreign ministry official said. “We will prepare our agendas accordingly.”

After getting the pulse of the Indian side, the Nepali side will sit with line ministries again, according to officials privy to the discussions.

“From the Pancheshwar hydropower project to signing of the mutual legal assistance to cross border connectivity, we have a host of issues and agendas to figure out,” a foreign ministry official said. “After Misri returns, we will start concluding our agendas as we will then have a month left for the ground work [for Oli’s India visit].”

Oli’s planned visit to India comes after a long exercise. He wanted to visit the southern neighbour as soon as he became the prime minister in July last year.

But the relations between Oli and New Delhi, which hit a rock bottom after a boundary dispute in November 2019, continued to be iffy. Despite setbacks, Oli kept trying to go to Delhi as he wanted to mend ties with the Modi administration.

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