Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah reportedly sent his Chief Advisor, Kumar Byanjankar (Ben), to New Delhi earlier this month where he met India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, the local media in Kathmandu reported on Thursday.
Byanjankar has been Prime Minister Shah’s most trusted advisor since Shah served as the Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
Local news portal Setopati.com, citing a senior Foreign Ministry source, claimed that Byanjankar met NSA Doval in New Delhi during the first week of July. However, Nepal’s Foreign Ministry has not been formally informed about his visit to the Indian capital.
According to the report, Rabi Lamichhane, President of the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), was aware of Ben’s confidential visit to New Delhi.
When some senior party leaders inquired about the meeting, Lamichhane reportedly told them that Byanjankar had informed him before leaving for Delhi.
Byanjankar’s reported one-on-one meeting with NSA Doval comes at a time when Shah has been refusing to engage directly with foreign diplomats, citing diplomatic protocol.
Amid allegations that previous administrations had allowed everyone — from foreign Ambassadors to even lower-ranking diplomatic staff — to gain direct access to the Prime Minister without the presence of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister Shah has been reluctant to hold one-on-one meetings with foreign diplomats.
Another leading Nepali daily, Kathmandu Post, however, said on Thursday that Ben has “consistently denied” the reports, insisting that “he had neither travelled to India nor held meetings with senior Indian government officials”.
Earlier, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s planned visit to Nepal in May was called off because of Prime Minister Shah’s reported reluctance.
Although Prime Minister Shah has already received an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit India, the proposed trip remains uncertain despite earlier optimism that it could take place soon.
Nepal, which lies between two geopolitical rivals — India and China — faces the difficult task of balancing its relations with both neighbours, while also managing its multifaceted engagement with the United States, the world’s leading superpower.
Meanwhile, local media reports say that Prime Minister Shah is preparing to meet Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Zhang Maoming, separately.
Departing from Nepal’s long-standing diplomatic practice, Shah earlier refused to hold one-on-one meetings with foreign envoys after assuming office. Instead, he held joint meetings with Kathmandu-based Ambassadors on April 9 and May 26, a move that was widely praised by many Nepali diplomats, although some questioned whether such a policy of equidistance would ultimately serve Nepal’s national interests.
The only exception was his meeting with Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda, who paid a three-day visit to Nepal in early July.
(IANS)
