Six months into the new Nepal government led by Prime Minister Balen Shah, who had earlier decided not to undertake foreign trips for at least a year, Delhi and Kathmandu are working towards scheduling a bilateral visit by Balen Shah in the latter half of November, sources said on Saturday.Nepal’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar this week. In a post on X, Jaishankar said both sides discussed ways to strengthen overall cooperation, especially in economic, energy and connectivity domains. According to sources, Wagle’s visit was aimed at preparing ground for Balen Shah’s India visit.They agreed India and Nepal will prioritise cross-border connectivity and transmission infrastructure, said sources.Sources said clean-energy cooperation is central, with Nepal targeting 35,000 megawatts (MW) over next nine years through run-of-river and storage projects. Nepal seeks expanded Indian investment, digitalization, high-value agriculture, green manufacturing, tourism, and production-sharing opportunities, sources said.They discussed updating trade treaty to cover services, investment protection, profit repatriation, and movement of parts and components, sources said. This was the first bilateral visit after the devastating August 26 flash flood,thus it was an opportunity to exchange notes on rescue and relief efforts. At least 270 Indians are still missing.While Wagle, the most experienced minister in the Nepal cabinet, met key officials on economic cooperation, post-disaster reconstruction, and economic recovery during his two-day visit, sources also said there is goodwill after India sent humanitarian aid. It had delivered about 95 tonnes of aid material and disaster relief supplies, apart from Baileys bridges.Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 27 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting and writing explainers and analysis on foreign affairs for about 19 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He won the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award, 2023, for the second time for his reporting of the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More Tags:nepal government