Nepal PM Oli to visit to India in mid-September

KATHMANDU: Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli will pay an official visit to India towards mid-September, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

“Preparations for the upcoming visit of the prime minister are underway. However, the date and the detailed schedules of the visit are yet to be finalised,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said.

However, sources at the Prime Minister’s Office said that Oli will embark on his official visit to the southern neighbour on September 16.

The visit will be short this time, probably for two days, the sources added.

Oli, the chairperson of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) - popular as the CPN-UML - had assumed the office of prime minister for the fourth time last July.

He had chosen to visit China for his maiden foreign visit, breaking the tradition of visiting India as the first destination after assuming the post of prime minister.

Prime Minister Oli visited China in December last year at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang. During his four day visit, the prime minister addressed a function at Peking University in Beijing and met President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Qiang.

Amid speculations by some sections of local media that he didn’t receive any invitation from India for an official visit, indicating that his relations with New Delhi had soured, Oli on Thursday said he will be visiting India and that ground work is underway on both sides for the trip. He, however, had not specified any timeframe for the visit at that time.