Foreign secretary Misri to visit Nepal ahead of PM Oli’s planned India trip

Foreign Secretary will meet his counterpart Amrit Bahadur Rai during August 17–18 to review bilateral relations with Nepal, discuss preparations for KP Sharma Oli’s visit to India

Published on: Aug 16, 2025, 17:43:07 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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New Delhi: Foreign secretary Vikram Misri will visit Nepal next week to meet his counterpart Amrit Bahadur Rai to review bilateral relations and discuss preparations for a planned trip to India next month by Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Foreign secretary Vikram Misri will visit Nepal next week. (PTI)

Misri will visit Nepal during August 17–18 at the invitation of Nepalese foreign secretary Rai, the external affairs ministry said on Saturday. The visit continues the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries and will be an opportunity to further advance bilateral ties, it said in a statement.

People familiar with the matter said, on condition of anonymity, that Misri’s meetings in Kathmandu will also focus on preparations for Oli’s visit to New Delhi. Oli is expected to visit India around September 16, though no official announcement has been made about the trip.

“India and Nepal share strong and friendly ties which have seen concrete progress in recent years in diverse areas of cooperation. India attaches high priority to its relations with Nepal under its Neighbourhood First policy,” the external affairs ministry said.

Also Read: India, Nepal hold home secy-level talks after 9 yrs, review security cooperation

India has traditionally enjoyed close ties with Nepal. However, Oli, who has sought to move his country closer to China, travelled to Beijing last December soon after beginning his fourth stint as Prime Minister—moving away from the convention of Nepal’s PMs making India the destination for their first foreign trip.

Oli is expected to visit China again later this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin as a special guest, though Nepal is not a member of the grouping.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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