Nepal-India to strengthen cooperation in trade, security, energy

The Dollar Business Bureau 

India and its neighbour Nepal will further strengthen cooperation in some key areas such as investments, trade, security and energy, the Ministry of External Affairs of India said.

The two countries had discussions on various issues during the Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari ongoing visit to India.

The Nepalese President is on a visit from April 17-21 to India and held meetings with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley.

The two sides noted that India-Nepal ties derive their strength from their shared history, common ethos of culture, and long intense and close people-to-people contact supported by the open borders, MEA said in a statement.

“The Indian leadership reiterated the importance of its neighbourhood first policy, and the high priority India attaches to strengthening relations with Nepal in every sphere,” the statement said.

The Nepalese President also conveyed her country’s commitment for taking forward the ties between the two neighbouring nations on the basis of understanding, goodwill and mutual benefit.

“Bhandari thanked India for its continuous support in the socio-economic development of Nepal, particularly, the support for reconstruction process after the earthquake in Nepal,” it added.

Both the sides have also expressed their satisfaction on intensive bilateral interactions taken place in the past few months to strengthen and deepen the ongoing cooperation in the fields of economic, trade, investment, water resources, security, energy, reconstruction efforts post-earthquake, education, culture and people-to-people contacts.

The two sides assessed the situation for implementing the ongoing development and connectivity projects and expressed their satisfaction at the initiatives recently taken towards speeding up the implementation of several projects.

The two nations took a review of the bilateral energy cooperation that includes hydropower projects development in Nepal, setting up of cross-border high-capacity transmission lines and power trade.

The Nepalese President was also accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, Peace and Reconstruction Minister Sita Devi Yadav, Members of Nepalese Parliament, and other senior officials from the government.