Nepal’s prime minister visits India, meets Modi to deepen ties

KATHMANDU, April 2 (Reuters) – Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and inaugurated the Himalayan nation’s solely railway hyperlink with its southern neighbour on Saturday in a summit meant to deepen relations.

Deuba’s first journey to India since changing into prime minister in July comes per week after a go to by Chinese language Overseas Minister Wang Yi to Nepal.

Nepal, a pure buffer between India and China, historically balances its ties with Beijing and New Delhi as each search to woo it by pouring in help and funding for infrastructure.

After the assembly, Deuba and Modi collectively flagged off Nepal’s solely railway hyperlink between Janakpur in Nepal and the border city of Jaynagar in India.

The 35-km (22-mile) railway was reconstructed by India as a grant. It was constructed by the colonial British Indian authorities as a narrow-gauge line to move logs from Nepal.

The 2 prime ministers additionally remotely inaugurated an electrical energy transmission line that may provide hydroelectric energy generated within the Solukhumbu space, the place Mount Everest is positioned, to Nepal’s nationwide energy grid.

Each international locations agreed to hurry up the Pancheswar hydroelectric venture on their border in west Nepal, which Modi mentioned could be a “recreation changer” for the event of the area.

“The friendship between India and Nepal and mutual relationship between our folks … can’t be discovered wherever on this planet,” Modi advised a information briefing after the assembly. “Threads of our civilization, tradition and mutual exchanges have been linked since historical instances.”

Analysts mentioned the go to would assist additional promote the multi-faceted relations between India and Nepal.

“The go to is going down after 4 years and can assist enhance belief and understanding between the 2 international locations,” Dinesh Bhattarai, a Nepali former ambassador to Geneva advised Reuters.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Modifying by Mayank Bhardwaj and William Mallard

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