Nepal PM Balen Shah holds one-on-one meet with Indian envoy, his first after taking charge

Kathmandu: Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah held a meeting with Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava on Monday, marking his first one-on-one meeting with a foreign diplomat since becoming country’s prime minister on March 27.

This marked a departure from his self-imposed rule of avoiding individual engagements with foreign ambassadors.

In the past, Prime Ministers routinely gave foreign diplomats easy access. This practice was widely criticized by the media and the general public.

Since becoming prime minister on March 27, Shah sought to change the practice by refraining from one-on-one meetings with foreign diplomats, although he held collective meetings with them.

The Prime Minister’s Secretariat said on Monday that Shah met Indian Ambassador at his office in Singha Durbar.

“During the meeting, the two sides discussed various issues related to bilateral friendship between Nepal and India, mutual interests, development partnership and cooperation,” it said in a statement.

It said Ambassador Srivastava congratulated Prime Minister Balen Shah and expressed his commitment to further strengthening mutual relations and cooperation between the two countries.

“Prime Minister Shah also emphasized the need to further deepen Nepal’s historic ties with India and work together in areas of shared interest,” it added.

Shah is also scheduled to meet separately with Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming later on Monday. A similar meeting with the US Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires, Scott Urbom, is planned for Tuesday, according to a source at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

The decision to meet the ambassadors of Nepal’s two immediate neighbours on the same day appears to indicate that Nepal attaches equal importance to both neighbouring countries.

The meeting with the Indian ambassador is the first one-on-one courtesy call between Shah and a Kathmandu-based foreign ambassador since he became prime minister more than four months ago.

Earlier, instead of meeting foreign diplomats individually, Shah held joint meetings with Kathmandu-based ambassadors on April 9 and May 26.

Nepali diplomats, foreign policy experts and observers welcomed his decision to meet foreign diplomats collectively, arguing that it represented a more transparent and equitable approach to diplomatic engagement.

The policy, however, was increasingly seen as difficult to sustain as Shah sought to expand Nepal’s engagement with foreign countries.

Earlier, Shah had also deviated from his own policy of avoiding meetings with foreign dignitaries when he held talks with Asian Development Bank President Masato Kanda, who visited Nepal for three days in early July.

Shah had previously declined requests from the US Embassy in Kathmandu for meetings with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Samir Paul Kapur and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for South and Central Asia, Sergio Gor, who also serves as the US ambassador to India. US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah B. Rogers also did not receive an audience with Shah during her visit to Nepal.

The proposed visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to Kathmandu in early May was also reportedly postponed after Shah declined to grant him an audience.

Some foreign policy analysts say that a blanket refusal to meet foreign diplomats does not serve Nepal’s national interests.

“The protocol should not become a barrier to meeting representatives of countries or institutions that are strategically important to Nepal,” Arun Sebudi, a foreign policy analyst, told IANS earlier.

IANS