Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will pay an official visit to India from April 1 to 3. This is the first official visit of PM Deuba after assuming office in July 2021.
Deuba has visited India in each of his four earlier stints as the Prime Minister of the Himalayan nation. His last visit to India was in 2017.
Thereafter, the Prime Ministers of India and Nepal held a meeting on the side-lines of the COP-26 Glasgow summit in 2021. PM Deuba is also expected to visit Gujarat for the Vibrant Gujarat summit-2022 but it was canceled due to the pandemic situation.
Prime Minister Deuba is also scheduled to visit Varanasi where he will visit the holy Kashi Vishwanath temple and a Nepali temple also known as Shri Samrajeswar Pashupatinath Mahadev Mandir. The Nepali temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was envisaged by Nepali King Rana Bahadur Shah who was exiled to the city from 1800 to 1804 A.D.
During their exile, he decided to build a replica of Kathmandu’s Pashupatinath temple in the city. The construction of the temple was taken forward by his son Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah. The temple belongs to the Nepal government and is one of the most famous temples of the holy city, Varanasi.
Under the vaccine Maitri initiative, India had gifted around 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Nepal.
Ever since the commencement of Vaccination in India, it has committed to the supply of vaccines to other countries as well, to ensure vaccine equity. India had handed over vaccines to Nepal under grants assistance in sync with its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. Nepal has also placed an order of 2 million vaccines with Pune-based pharmaceutical company Serum Institute of India.
Earlier, India had pledged one billion US dollars as support for earthquake reconstruction; one-fourth of it was committed as grant assistance to be utilized for health, cultural heritage, housing and education sectors.
Over the last five years and more, India has substantially fulfilled its commitment under various priority sectors identified by the Government of Nepal. Recently, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has mentioned that the reconstruction of 50,000 owner-driven houses in Gorkha and Nuwakot districts under Indian assistance has been completed.
The projects in the remaining sectors of health, education and culture are also in progress. It is important to note that India is funding the reconstruction of 70 schools and a library, 132 health facilities and 28 cultural heritage sector projects in various earthquake-affected districts of Nepal.
India’s development cooperation with Nepal is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional and has stood the test of time. As close partners with unparalleled civilizational and socio-cultural connections, mutual support and solidarity in times of need have been an integral part of bilateral ethos and action underscoring that India will always unhesitatingly step up to support the people of Nepal whenever called to do so.
