What’s the ongoing story: India and Nepal completed the internal processes to enforce the mutual legal assistance pact to tackle “cross-border crimes”, as the visiting Foreign Minister of Nepal Shishir Khanal met External Affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday.
Key Takeaways:
— The two sides also made progress in the sectors of health, UPI, innovation and startups. Khanal’s visit comes days after the chief of Nepal’s ruling RSP, Rabi Lamichhane, met the Indian leadership in Delhi.
— The Ministry of External Affairs released an official statement: “Both Ministers welcomed the completion of internal processes for entry into force of the India-Nepal Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement in Criminal Matters (MLAA). This Agreement will benefit the people of India and Nepal by providing an institutional legal framework to enhance the effectiveness of investigation, prosecution and judicial proceedings relating to cross-border crimes.”
— The Nepalese Foreign Minister also met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. After the bilateral talks, Jaishankar handed over 72 health facilities and 12 cultural heritage sector projects, completed under India’s post-2015 ‘Earthquake Reconstruction Assistance’ to Nepal, to the visiting Foreign Minister.
— The ministers jointly launched the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) linkage between Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and National Payments Interface (NPI) of Nepal for facilitating cross-border personal remittances, the MEA said.
— It also said the ministers witnessed the signing of MoU between Digital India Bhashini and Kathmandu University for co-creating National Digital Infrastructure for “Voice First” Language Translation platform.
— This is the first official visit by the Nepalese Foreign minister after the new government led by PM Balendra Shah assumed office in March this year.
— “Nepal is a priority partner of India under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and the visit reinforced the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two close and friendly neighbours. It provided an opportunity to exchange views on enhancing the bilateral partnership to fulfill the aspirations of peoples from both countries, and has imparted fresh vigour to our efforts towards this objective,” the MEA said.
Do You Know:
— Nepal and India have a unique relationship. The open border, shared culture, economic interdependence and deep-rooted people-to-people relationship make bilateral ties special.
— The diplomatic challenge in dealing with the new Nepal is that Delhi is seen by some sections as a ‘bully’.
— The political actions and statements from India in 2015 alienated a vast section of the Nepalese population. This was when the Nepalese Constitution was being drafted, and India criticised it for not giving enough rights to Madhesis, who share community links on the Indian side of the border. There was also an unofficial, deeply unpopular months-long blockade of the India-Nepal border in Bihar.
— India, on its part, has sought to project itself as a benevolent “elder brother”, as then External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had once described, instead of “big brother”, an epithet used for bullying behaviour.
— Delhi feels that the ties are too strong to be overlooked. South Block says that India remains Nepal’s largest trade partner, about 80 lakh Nepalese citizens live and work in India, and around 6 lakh Indians live in Nepal. Indians account for about 30 per cent of foreign tourists in Nepal. The bilateral remittance flow is estimated at about US$ 3 billion (Nepal to India) and $ 1 billion (India to Nepal).
— There is also a geopolitical contest for influence playing out in Kathmandu. The Himalayan country finds itself sandwiched between the two powers, India and China, and Nepalese political leadership has in the past sought to use the China card with India. The US too is active and has been interested in being part of the landscape there.
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