Amid the ongoing uncertainty in Nepal-India relations, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane is scheduled to visit India in the first week of June.
The ruling party leader’s visit comes at a time when the cancellation of Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Nepal and uncertainty surrounding the newly elected Nepali prime minister’s traditional visit to India have given rise to questions regarding Nepal’s ties with its southern neighbor.
According to an RSP leader, Lamichhane is scheduled to visit the Indian capital, New Delhi, on June 2 and 3.
"The dates for the visit have been finalized," the leader told Setopati. "However, meetings and other programs have not yet been decided."
Sources say preparations are underway for Lamichhane to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and others during his visit.
After the RSP secured a near two-thirds majority in the March 5 elections, Indian PM Modi had telephoned Lamichhane to congratulate him. This will be the first India visit by an RSP delegation led by Lamichhane since the formation of the new government.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal was scheduled to visit New Delhi to attend the first conference of the International Big Cat Alliance – an international intergovernmental group dedicated to the conservation of wildlife like tigers and leopards. The conference, to be inaugurated by Indian PM Modi, was slated for June 2 and 3.
However, India has postponed the conference for the time being amid global concerns over an Ebola outbreak.
Foreign Minister Khanal had planned to hold sideline talks with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal during that conference. There were also preparations to extend a formal invitation to Jaishankar to visit Nepal.
Had the Indian external affairs minister's visit to Nepal been finalized, it could have served as a crucial diplomatic stepping stone for expanding relations between the Indian establishment and Nepal’s new government led by a new party that came to power with a near two-thirds majority in the March 5 elections.
Foreign Ministry officials had hoped this would help remove the uncertainty created by the cancellation of Indian Foreign Secretary Misri’s Nepal visit. They were also optimistic that it would create an environment for fixing the date of Prime Minister Balen Shah’s visit to India.
With the postponement of the conference, Nepal had to look for alternative avenues to take the diplomatic initiative to clear the uncertainty surrounding Nepal-India ties. In this context, the ruling party president’s scheduled visit to India is being viewed as highly significant.
Indian Foreign Secretary Misri was originally expected to visit Nepal on May 11. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintained that the dates were not officially finalized, sources claim that Misri's trip was canceled because Prime Minister Shah declined to hold a bilateral meeting with him.
Earlier, PM Shah had also refused to meet US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Sergio Gor.
