Kathmandu. Minister for Foreign Affairs Shishir Khanal has visited India and China in a span of two weeks. Minister Khanal visited India from June 22 to 24 and China from June 14 to July 14. <\/p>\n
Many believe that Foreign Minister Khanal visited both the countries strategically to keep the two countries balanced. The visit to the two neighbouring countries following the formation of the new government is seen as an important diplomatic journey of the government. <\/p>\n
During the visit, both sides emphasized on Nepal’s economic development, infrastructure development and trade partnership. Both countries have pledged to be reliable partners in Nepal’s development. Connectivity has been a major topic of discussion with both countries. <\/p>\n
The government has laid emphasis on transit and digital connectivity with India while connectivity in road, port and aviation to transform Nepal from a landlocked country to a land-linked country with China. <\/p>\n
Likewise, during the bilateral meeting with the foreign ministers of both countries, the issue of bringing foreign investment to Nepal was discussed. In particular, the Chinese side clearly encourages Chinese companies to invest and Nepal should create a transparent business environment for the same. The Nepali Embassy in China had organized the investment summit during Khanal’s visit. <\/p>\n
Apart from bilateral issues, matters of regional and multilateral and international interests were also discussed during the visit. While India emphasises its “neighbourhood first” policy and historic people-to-people ties, China recalls its thousand-year-old links linked by mountains and rivers, and the “Panchasheel Principle”. <\/p>\n
Differing understanding of the two countries<\/strong><\/p>\n Experts say that the statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs of India is very practical and result-oriented. India’s statement contains a list of concrete agreements and actions. India has also made public the issues related to the transfer of 72 health institutions and 12 cultural heritage, the integration of UPI and NPI for cross-border payments. <\/p>\n But experts say that China’s statement is more strategic and policy-based. The statement stresses more on long-term policies such as high-quality cooperation and strategic partnership under the BRI, rather than on projects. <\/p>\n What does the Indian media say about the border dispute after Foreign Minister Khanal’s visit to India? <\/strong><\/p>\n Political and geopolitical issues have found a place in China’s discourse. The document contains special importance of Nepal’s commitment to ‘One China Policy’, Nepal’s statement that Taiwan and Tibet are China’s internal affairs and the commitment not to allow Nepal’s territory to be used against China. <\/p>\n India’s statement does not mention any such political ideology or geopolitics targeting third countries. It is purely focused on bilateral economic, technical and security cooperation. During his visit to India, Foreign Minister Khanal had a separate meeting with National Security Advisor of India Ajit Doval. <\/p>\n In addition, the implementation of the India-Nepal Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement (MLAA) to control cross-border crimes has been emphasized, which reflects the security sensitivities between the two countries. <\/p>\n The agreement will benefit the people of India and Nepal by providing an institutional legal framework to enhance the effectiveness of investigation, prosecution and judicial proceedings related to trans-border crimes. <\/p>\n What did the Foreign Minister say about the UK entry on the border dispute and Prime Minister Balen’s visit to India? <\/strong><\/p>\n China’s statement does not mention any specific legal or trans-border crime control mechanism, but instead states China’s support for safeguarding Nepal’s national sovereignty and independence. Technology and innovation, financial technology, energy, and people-to-people relations are a priority for India, while China has prioritized large infrastructure infrastructure, poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and connectivity through the BRI. <\/p>\n Thus, India seems to be emphasizing digital and financial integration, as well as the implementation of stalled agreements, while China seems to be emphasizing the renewal of traditional political trust and the continuation of projects such as the Comprehensive Strategic Infrastructure BRI. <\/p>\n Ministry of Foreign Affairs Statement<\/strong><\/p>\n Nepal has stressed to both countries to pursue balanced, independent and multi-dimensional foreign policy in a more forceful way. Khanal held talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyi Jaishankar and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and discussed ways to promote economic and development diplomacy in Nepal and take bilateral relations to a new height, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on different dates. <\/p>\n During his visit, Khanal held bilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yi and held meetings with Liu Haixing, Minister of International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Wang Huning, chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of China. During the meetings, Nepal reiterated its commitment to ‘One China Principle’ and made it clear that Nepali territory would not be allowed to be used against China. <\/p>\n The Chinese side expressed its firm support for Nepal’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and expressed its full support for Nepal’s good governance and economic development. The two countries have agreed to cooperate in various fields such as infrastructure, connectivity, border management, energy, trade, agriculture, technology transfer, digital transformation, tourism, chemical fertilizers, and petroleum and natural gas exploration. <\/p>\n KATHMANDU: Minister Khanal has urged Chinese investors to invest in Nepal. <\/p>\n Similarly, Minister Khanal also met with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and India’s National Security Advisor Doval held talks on issues of common security concerns and border management. <\/p>\n In addition to signing agreement on cross-border payment, 72 post-earthquake post-earthquake health sector and 12 cultural sector projects were handed over to Nepal with India’s development assistance. <\/p>\n Minister Khanal said that Nepal has prepared a strong base to further strengthen trade, investment, energy cooperation and connectivity by expanding independent, practical and cooperative relations with its neighbours. He also directed the Nepali embassies in the concerned countries to conduct economic diplomacy in an effective manner safeguarding the interests of Nepal and Nepalis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kathmandu. Minister for Foreign Affairs Shishir Khanal has visited India and China in a span of two weeks. Minister Khanal visited India from June 22 to 24 and China from June 14 to July 14. Many believe that Foreign Minister Khanal visited both the countries strategically to keep the two countries balanced. The visit toContinue reading “Foreign Minister Khanal’s visit to two neighbouring countries”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":92136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"acf":[],"publishedDateNp":"\u096a \u0905\u0938\u093e\u0930 \u0968\u0966\u096e\u0969, \u092c\u093f\u0939\u0940\u092c\u093e\u0930 \u0967\u096c:\u0969\u096d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92144,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92143\/revisions\/92144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/92136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}