KATHMANDU: A Nepal-India foreign secretary level meeting has started at Hotel Yak and Yeti at Durbar Marg in the capital.

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who arrived on a two-day visit to Nepal this morning, is holding delegation-level talks with his Nepali counterpart, Bharat Raj Poudyal.  The meeting is dwelling on wide-ranging areas of cooperation between Nepal and India.

Earlier, talking to Khabarhub upon his arrival at the airport, Shringla said, “It is honored to be here in Nepal. I wanted to come here earlier but because of COVID-19 I could not do so. I am happy to be here in Kathmandu.” He further said, “We have a very strong bilateral relationship. Our endeavor would be to take our relationships forward.”

Following the foreign secretary level meeting, Shringla is scheduled to go to Singha Durbar to hold a meeting with Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali.

Shringla is scheduled to call on Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and President Bidhya Bhandari among others this evening.

He will visit Gorkha tomorrow to inaugurate a school building built by Indian Embassy. This is the first visit of the Foreign Secretary to Nepal since he assumed the charge.

The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two neighbors and the priority India attaches to its relations with Nepal, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in its statement.

Shringla’s visit comes after two back-to-back high-level visits from new Delhi by Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane (November) and Research and Analysis Wing head Samant Goel (October).

Shringla will return home after wrapping up his two-day official visit to Nepal on Friday.