KATHMANDU: Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal stated today that his recent official visit to neighboring India led to highly productive discussions across various dimensions of bilateral relations.

Briefing the National Assembly about his official visit to India from June 5 to 7, Minister Khanal shared that substantive talks were held on trade and economic cooperation, connectivity, energy partnership, water resource management, and strengthening people-to-people ties through sports.

During a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations, while also exchanging views on shared security interests, border management, and various aspects of strategic partnership. The Foreign Minister further informed the parliament that during an event organized by the India Foundation, he highlighted Nepal’s foreign policy priorities and engaged in interactions regarding mutual concerns in energy, trade, and border issues, alongside various regional and international matters of mutual interest.

Several key milestones were achieved during the visit, including the facilitation of operations for cross-border peer-to-peer electronic payment services in line with an understanding with the Nepal Clearing House Limited. Additionally, the visit marked the formal handover of post-earthquake reconstruction projects in Nepal built under India’s development assistance.

An important Memorandum of Understanding was also exchanged between the Digital Public Infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence Center under Kathmandu University’s School of Engineering and the Digital India Bhashini Division to co-create national digital infrastructure for the ‘Voice First’ language translation platform.

Furthermore, Foreign Minister Khanal held high-level discussions with India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. Minister Khanal noted that he firmly believes the high-level meetings and dialogues held in New Delhi have elevated Nepal-India diplomatic and economic cooperation to new heights, while laying a solid foundation for result-oriented collaboration in areas of mutual interest in the days ahead.

He added that the visit served as an excellent opportunity to robustly articulate Nepal’s balanced, independent, and multi-dimensional foreign policy, paving a concrete ground for expanding trade, investment, energy cooperation, tourism, connectivity, and people-to-people ties, while also allowing for an exchange of views on contemporary international issues such as regional stability, supply chain security, and energy partnerships.