Foreign Secretary Gokhale meets Nepal's top leadership

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Thursday held bilateral talks on a wide range of issues, including railway and waterway projects, with his Nepali counterpart Shankar Das Bairagi and called on Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli during his two-day visit here. Gokhale, who arrived in Kathmandu on Thursday, also met Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Foreign Ministry officials said here.

Gokhale and Bairagi reviewed all aspects of wide ranging bilateral partnership and exchanged views on regional and other issues of mutual interest. "The two Foreign Secretaries also agreed to maintain the momentum in bilateral engagement across diverse sectors of cooperation and to further strengthen the traditionally close friendly and multi-faceted partnership between the two countries," according to a press release issued by the Indian Embassy here.

"The two Foreign secretaries also reviewed the status of implementation of various projects including those pertaining to connectivity, railway, waterways and other infrastructure," it said. During the talks, the two sides also reviewed the past commitments that were made during the visit of Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to India and return visits of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal last year.

"As India is gearing up for general elections, the meeting of the Joint Commission at foreign ministers’ level was postponed. That’s why a meeting at the foreign secretary level is taking place to ensure smooth execution of old and new agreements and understandings reached with India,” Gyawali was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post newspaper. The minister said some projects and bilateral issues have been resolved or making good progress and some are facing some bottlenecks.

It is also expected that the Nepali officials might also try to push the report of the Eminent Persons’ Group on Nepal-India Relations in the wake of New Delhi's reluctance to accept it before the general elections, the report said.