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Thapa, Swaraj dwell on politics in Nepal
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa and India’s Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Friday discussed Nepal’s political situation, protests by the Madhes-based parties and other bilateral issues.Kamal Dev Bhattarai
DPM and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa and India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj hold talks in New Delhi on Friday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa and India’s Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Friday discussed Nepal’s political situation, protests by the Madhes-based parties and other bilateral issues.
DPM and Minister for Foreign Affairs Thapa arrived in New Delhi on Friday to participate in the convocation ceremony of the South Asia University to be held on Saturday.
This is Thapa’s fourth visit to the southern neighbour since he assumed office in October.
“Nothing specific was discussed regarding Madhes and [boundary] demarcation,” said Thapa, adding that the meeting dwelt on overall political situation [in Nepal].
Ties between Nepal and India that went off track after the promulgation of the constitution are yet to return to normalcy, but whatever improvement was seen following Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s visit to New Delhi in February faced a major setback in May again after the Oli government decided to cancel President Bhandari’s scheduled visit.
Even during PM Oli’s visit, New Delhi had expressed its concern about Madhes and boundary demarcation, saying they were “outstanding issues”.
According to sources, India did not raise boundary demarcation issue because “there is no hope that the incumbent government is serious about addressing it”.
“The priority of the Indian government this time is just to keep the bilateral relations normal,” a source told the Post.
Speaking to the Post, Thapa said issues related to boundary demarcation will be resolved once the Madhes-based parties come to the negotiating table. “There is an understanding among parties in Nepal that remaining issues related to demarcation should be resolved through political consensus,” he said.
During the meeting between Thapa and Swaraj on Friday, Nepal and India agreed to hold the meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission (JC), the highest level mechanism between the two countries in mid-August. “It is a major achievement,” said Thapa.
The last JC meeting was held in Kathmandu on July 25-27 in 2014 following which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Nepal.
India asks about cancelled visit of Prez
India on Friday formally expressed its displeasure at the cancellation of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari’s visit to the southern neighbour in May. During a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the latter, enquired about the reasons behind the cancellation of President Bhandari’s visit. “I informed the Indian side that President Bhandari’s visit will be fixed at the earliest possible date,” Thapa told the Post after his meeting with Swaraj. “The visit was cancelled due to internal political situation and not because of any other reason.” (PR)