Nepal PM’s visit to India

In news– Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba visited India recently.

Key updates-

The visit of Nepal’s Prime Minister is his first one since assuming office in July 2021.
The 35-km cross-border railway line linking Jaynagar in Bihar to Kurtha in Nepal was launched.This is the first broad-gauge passenger rail link between the two sides and it will be extended to Bardibas in Nepal under a project supported by Indian grant.
The Indian side handed over the Solu Corridor, a 90-km, 132 kV power transmission line built for Rs 200 crore under an Indian line of credit, which brings electricity to several remote districts in northeastern Nepal by connecting them to the country’s national grid.
India’s RuPay card has been launched in Nepal. Nepal became the fourth country, after Bhutan, Singapore and the UAE, where RuPay is live.
Nepal signed a framework agreement to join the India-led International Solar Alliance (becoming the 105th member country of ISA).
An MoU on enhancing technical cooperation in the railways sector, and two agreements between Indian Oil Corporation and Nepal Oil Corporation for the supply of petroleum products for five years and for sharing of technical expertise were signed.
The two sides agreed to expedite work on the delayed Pancheshwar multipurpose dam project (on Mahakali river) that is considered to be a gamechanger for the development of the region.
The Indian side made it clear both countries need to address the boundary issue through dialogue and to avoid the politicisation of such issues.

Nepal-India Bilateral relations-

As close neighbors, India and Nepal share unique ties of friendship and cooperation characterized by an open border and deep-rooted people-to-people contacts of kinship and culture.
There has been a long tradition of free movement of people across the border.
Nepal shares a border of over 1850 km with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 forms the bedrock of the special relations that exist between India and Nepal.
There are regular exchanges of high-level visits and interactions between India and Nepal.
Both countries have several bilateral institutional dialogue mechanisms, including the India-Nepal Joint Commission co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister of India and Foreign Minister of Nepal.
India is Nepal’s largest trade partner and the largest source of foreign investments, besides providing transit for almost the entire third country trade of Nepal.
MOUs have been signed between both the governments for laying an electric railway track linking Kathmandu with Raxaul (Bihar) in India.
India has signed three sister-city agreements for twinning Kathmandu-Varanasi, Lumbini-Bodhgaya and Janakpur-Ayodhya.
India and Nepal share multiple multilateral forums such as BIMSTEC, Non Aligned Movement (NAM), BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal), and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).