KATHMANDU: External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar, who arrived in Kathmandu this afternoon, paid a courtesy call on Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Oli at the latter’s official residence in Baluwatar today.

Jaishankar is in Kathmandu to attend the Fifth Meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission beginning this afternoon here.

The two-day meeting will focus on bilateral relations, trade, and transit, economic cooperation, energy, water resources, culture, and education, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

According to MoFA, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali and India’s External Minister Jaishankar will co-chair the meeting.

The meeting will discuss and review the overall state of Nepal-India relations as well as other areas of cooperation including trade and transit, connectivity and economic partnership, water resources, education, culture, and other issues of mutual interest.

Established in 1987, the Nepal-India Joint Commission holds its meetings alternately in Nepal and India. The previous meeting was held in New Delhi on October 2016.

Jaishankar arrived in Kathmandu for the first time after being appointed as India’s Minister for External Affairs under the Narendra Modi-led government.

The Indian External Minister will also pay a courtesy call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Thursday at 10:30 am. Jaishankar is scheduled to return to New Delhi on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Jaishankar conveyed India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to PM Oli which said that Modi would receive the report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report in an appropriate time soon, according to PM Oli’s foreign affairs advisor Dr. Rajan Bhattarai.