NEPAL MINISTER’S VISIT TO FOCUS ON COVID VACCINE PROCUREMENT

NEW DELHI: Procuring Covid-19 vaccines and development cooperation will be the focus of Nepal foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali’s visit to India during January 14-16 though the border row is expected to figure in discussions, people familiar with developments said on Tuesday.

Gyawali is visiting at the invitation of his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar for a meeting of the India-Nepal joint commission. “The joint commission meeting will discuss the whole gamut of Nepal-India bilateral relations, including trade, transit, energy, boundary, Covid-19 cooperation, infrastructure, connectivity, investment, agriculture, tourism and culture, among others,” a readout from the Nepal foreign ministry said.

Though Nepal has formally reached out to both India and China for vaccines, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity that Kathmandu had indicated a preference for sourcing doses from New Delhi because of several factors, including pricing, logistics and links between the health sectors.

The people cited above said Nepal is hoping India will provide vaccines as assistance to inoculate a portion of the 12 million people it plans to cover in its first phase of vaccinations.

Nepal is also looking to buy millions of doses from foreign suppliers, including the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. “These are the sort of issues that will be discussed at the joint commission meeting so that we can work out modalities,” one of the people said.