Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel, who is currently in New Delhi to prepare the ground for Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s upcoming India visit, has been holding meetings with Indian ministers. PM Oli is scheduled to visit India on his maiden foreign visit on February 19. 

Minister Poudel landed here in the Indian Capital this morning and met Home Minister Rajnath Singh. 

Poudel was accompanied by Finance Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi, Foreign Secreary Shankar Das Bairagi, and deputy chief of Nepali embassy in Delhi Krishna Prasad Dhakal, during his meeting with Indian Minister Singh.

The visiting finance minister also held a meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj this evening, Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson at India’s Ministry of External Affairs wrote in his tweet. “Moving forward our engagement with Nepal,” he wrote.  

During the meeting, Minister Poudel briefed Minister Swaraj on the current political situation in Nepal after the amendment of constitution and the remaining constitutional issues. 

Apart from holding discussion regarding post-earthquake reconstruction assistance, he also informed about PM Oli’s visit to India.  

“Minister Poudel is busy in political meetings to make PM Oli’s scheduled visit to India a bridge for strengthening the bilateral relations and mutual cooperation,” said an official present at the meeting. 

Minister Poude’s discussions will be focused on building mutual trust between the two countries especially in the context of gradually improving ties in the wake of four-month long border blockade, he added. 

“The finance minister will discuss with Indian officials on issues such as India’s Line of Credit (LOC) to Nepal, regular assistance and post-earthquake reconstruction projects,” said Minister-Economic at Nepali embassy in India Dhundi Raj Pokharel.  

It has been learnt that nature and scale of this financial project and assistance will be finalised after Minister Poudel’s meeting with his Indian counterpart Arun Jaitley. He is scheduled to have a luncheon meeting with Jaitley on Monday.