Foreign minister calls on Nepal PM

KATHMANDU: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday called on Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli here ahead of the 5th Joint Commission Meeting between India and Nepal.

“A warm and in-depth conversation with PM @kpsharmaoli. Really appreciate his receiving me amidst his many preoccupations,” Jaishankar tweeted after his meeting with the prime minister.

Jaishankar, who flew in from Dhaka after a two-day visit to Bangladesh on Wednesday morning, will call on President Bidya Bhandari on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the 5th Meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission started here this afternoon. Jaishankar co-chaired the meeting along with his Nepalese counterpart Pradeep Gyawali. “Both the leaders will take stock of the entire gamut of India-Nepal bilateral relationship,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

The joint meeting will review the overall state of bilateral relations, and various areas of cooperation such as connectivity and economic partnership, trade and transit, power and water resources, culture, education and other matters of mutual interest.

Established in 1987, the NepalIndia Joint Commission’s meetings are being held alternately in both countries. The last meeting was held in New Delhi in October 2016. This is the first high-level visit by any Indian minister after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election in May this year.