The leader of Nepal’s ruling party will visit India to boost economic ties and strategic cooperation in the first high-level visit since the 2025 youth protests.
New Delhi: The head of Nepal’s ruling party on Tuesday called for closer economic and strategic cooperation with India by 2025, in the first high-level visit since deadly anti-corruption youth protests ousted the previous government.
But this visit by a key ally was not meant to be Nepal’s new prime minister – 36-year-old rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah.
Shah has refused to hold meetings with several foreign envoys to Nepal and, according to his aides, has said he will not travel abroad during his first year in power to focus on the many domestic challenges, particularly the poor economy.
Instead the first visit to key ally India was by former deputy prime minister and interior minister Rabie Lamichhane, who is president of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP).
Under Shah’s leadership, it achieved a massive victory in the parliamentary elections held in March.
RSP spokesman Manish Jha told AFP that former television host Lamichhane retains an important role in power and the lawmaker is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Nepal, a landlocked Himalayan nation of 30 million people, must ensure a delicate diplomatic balance between its two giant neighbours, India and China.
India has long considered Hindu-majority Nepal, which has open borders with the plains, as a traditional ally.
According to World Bank data, Kathmandu’s largest trading partner is India, accounting for 63% or $8.6 billion of imports, followed by China at 13% or $1.8 billion.
“A stable and prosperous Nepal is a natural guardrail on India’s northern border, while a politically fractured Nepal makes India concerned about instability in the neighbourhood,” Lamichhane wrote in The Hindustan Times on Tuesday.
“Therefore, the economic development of Nepal is a strategic necessity for India.”
hydropower and cricket
Shah has spoken little since coming to power and issued his victory message in a rap song, where he promised to “run like a cheetah” to ensure his country’s success.
The visit comes as a resurgence of a long-running border dispute over Nepalese territorial claims at the Lipulekh Pass, where India, China and Nepal meet.
The 5,334-metre-high (17,500 ft) snowy pass is used by Indian pilgrims to visit Mount Kailash – sacred to Hindus and Tibetan Buddhists, but it also connects India directly to China.
In 2020, protests broke out in Nepal after India inaugurated a new road leading to the pass.
On Sunday, Shah said in Parliament that both India and Nepal had “encroached” on each other’s territory, and said they should “resolve this issue as friends”. This comment created an uproar in the Parliament of Kathmandu.
Analysts say Lamichhane’s visit could help renew ties.
“There has been a void in political dialogue between Nepal and India for some time,” said Chandra Dev Bhatt, a Kathmandu-based foreign affairs analyst.
“So this visit is a positive step towards starting the dialogue and clearing any misunderstandings.”
Lamichhane said Nepal could offer energy-hungry India hydropower from its many dams on rivers flowing through the Himalayas.
He wrote, “Nepal’s hydropower potential is no longer just a domestic asset; it is a clean, green engine capable of powering emerging India’s industrial corridors.”
He also said that the love for cricket in Nepal is as much as in India, with fans watching the recently concluded India Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament.
“We are also looking deeply into how Nepalese players and Nepalese stadiums can be integrated into the IPL franchise,” he said.
Nepal are cricketing giants – but suffered the biggest single-ball upset in T20 World Cup history in February when they lost to England by just four runs.
