Prime minister Narenda Modi shakes hand with Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli before their meeting at Hyderabad house in New Delhi on Saturday
NEW DELHI: India and Nepal pledged to review and revitalise the bilateral relationship through a slew of initiatives during talks between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli in New Delhi on Saturday.In his joint address with Modi after the delegation-level talks, Oli declared he came on a “mission” to take bilateral ties to newer heights “commensurate with the realities of the 21st century”.
Oli had arrived in Delhi on Friday on his first foreign trip since assuming office in February.
After the ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan and the wreath laying ceremony at Rajghat on Saturday, the two sides held delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House. The two prime ministers remotely launched an Integrated Check Post at Birgunj, Nepal and witnessed the ground breaking ceremony of a cross-border petroleum products pipeline at Motihari in Bihar’s East Champaran district.
In their joint press address, Modi stressed on the “long history of India’s contribution towards Nepal’s development,” and added he assured PM Oli of continuing it in future. Oli said the two nations agreed to work together “to take bilateral relations to newer heights on the basis of equality, mutual trust, respect and benefit.”Later, foreign secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale told the media that after a decade of constitution making, Nepal has completed the first election under the new constitution. “The political struggle is over, and a new era of stability has started,” he said, pledging India support to Nepal.