Foreign Minister Reveals Prime Minister Balen Shah's Potential India Visit

Kathmandu. Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal, currently in Mauritius for the 9th Indian Ocean Conference, has disclosed details regarding Prime Minister Balen (Balen) Shah's potential visit to India.

Following a meeting with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar, Minister Khanal discussed the invitation extended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Prime Minister Balen, which included a congratulatory message.

Prime Minister Balen has accepted the invitation. However, Minister Khanal noted that this is in the preliminary stages and further discussions are required to finalize the details.

It was reported that during the conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, it was agreed that a secretary-level visit would precede any high-level bilateral visit. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is expected to visit Nepal in the near future, during which further arrangements will be determined.

Minister Khanal told Indian media, 'Our Prime Minister received an invitation in a congratulatory message. The Prime Minister has accepted it, but the date and time will be determined by our respective mechanisms.'

However, officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated they were unaware of the matter. One official remarked, 'We only learned about this from what the Foreign Minister said while in India. There has been no discussion in our ministry regarding Prime Minister Balen's visit. Perhaps there will be some conversation after the Minister returns!'

The official also mentioned that the topic of Prime Minister Balen's visit was not discussed during the Foreign Minister's meeting with Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava. 'Perhaps there was some conversation at the highest level. That is separate, but there has been no discussion at the staff level,' he said.

Foreign Minister Khanal is scheduled to return home from Mauritius tomorrow.

Previously, there was always speculation regarding where a newly appointed Prime Minister would make their first foreign visit. In particular, there was significant interest in whether the Prime Minister's first visit would be to India. India and China often competed to host the first visit. Traditionally, the first visit was usually to India. However, this trend has been broken recently, with some Nepali Prime Ministers choosing to start their first foreign visits elsewhere.

Former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli was not invited to India for a long time. He subsequently visited China. India invited Oli much later. While preparations for that visit were underway, the Gen-Z movement occurred, and the Oli-led government collapsed.

Prime Minister Sushila Karki, who led the interim government formed after the Gen-Z movement, also received an invitation to visit India. However, as she was leading an interim election government for a short period, she decided not to visit any country, including India.

Foreign policy experts suggest that while Prime Minister Balen received the first invitation from India, he is not the type of leader to rush into a visit immediately upon receiving an invitation, unlike some of his predecessors.