Nitin Gadkari, a senior Indian cabinet minister, is expected to visit Nepal next week as both countries hint at increased engagement in the coming weeks. Although the visit doesn’t come on an official invitation, the minister is likely to meet senior leaders from both the government and the opposition. 

Gadkari, who is also a senior leader of India’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), is arriving in Kathmandu at the invitation of Patanjali Yogpeeth Nepal, reported The Kathmandu Post. Saligram Singh, the head of Patanjali Yogpeeth Nepal, confirmed to the Kathmandu Post that Gadkari would be visiting along with Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev and Achary1a Balkrishna. 

During his visit, Gadkari is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and other leaders from the ruling and opposition parties, the report said. 

Significantly, two countries have stepped up interactions--though at an unofficial level--as senior leaders of the ruling parties from the two sides visited one another in the last few weeks. Fresh engagement by party leaders started after Sher Bahadur Deuba, the leader of the Nepali Congress, became the prime minister in Nepal following an order from the apex court. 

In 2020, the ties between the two countries soured after the boundary row erupted over Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiadhara. In the following months, both countries put concentrated efforts, including a series of visits by high-ranking Indian officials, to cool down tensions. 

However, there seems a clear acceptance on both sides of the reality that the traditional understanding isn’t working anymore for many reasons--one among them is the growing Chinese influence in Nepal. Both countries are in search of a new policy reset to find a common ground. 

In August, Prakash Sharan Mahat, former foreign minister and a senior leader from Nepal’s main ruling Nepali Congress party, visited India at the invitation of the BJP. Mahat met senior leaders of India’s ruling party BJP and External Affairs Ministers S Jaishankar. He stressed on frank, straight, and continued discussions between the two nations for better relations. 
 
A month later in October, Vijay Chauthaiwale, head of BJP's foreign cell,  paid a visit to Nepal at the invitation of the Nepali Congress. In Kathmandu, he met Prime Minister Deuba, and other senior leaders of the Nepali Congress and other parties. 

Nepal wants India to revisit the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship in order to reflect “changes and new realities” of contemporary bilateral ties, a demand that has a consensus across political parties in Kathmandu. 

(SAM)