Foreign Secretary to visit Kathmandu as plans get underway for Nepal PM’s India visit

In a visit to fine-tune the details of Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s planned trip to India, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is expected to reach Kathmandu on November 4, along with newly designated Indian ambassador Sudhakar Dalela, a Nepali diplomatic source has told The Hindu.

Mr. Shah is expected to visit India by the end of the year, even as his seven-month-old government continues to deal with the aftermath of the devastating floods in the Bhote Koshi River while also planning a slew of administrative and political reforms.

If it materialises, this will be the first bilateral visit abroad by Mr. Shah, who rose to prominence during the September 2025 Gen-Z uprising in Nepal that overthrew the government of former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli.

Deprioritising foreign trips

The Hindu had earlier reported that Mr. Shah, who belongs to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) led by former media personality Rabi Lamichhane, had vowed to focus on domestic priorities while deprioritising foreign interlocutors. In fact, Mr. Misri was earlier scheduled to travel to Kathmandu to meet Prime Minister Shah in May but the visit was postponed, ostensibly because of the new leader’s resolve to focus on domestic challenges.

Subsequently, RSP chairman Mr. Lamichhane was hosted in New Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 3, after which Nepal’s Foreign Minister Sisir Khanal visited Delhi on June 5, in the first Minister-level representation to India from the new government, and met his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar. This was followed by the visits of Nepal’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle in September and Home Minister Sudan Gurung, who participated in the first BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Home Ministers’ meeting held on October 13. Mr. Gurung also met Mr. Jaishankar before he returned to Kathmandu. Mr. Wagle paid a repeat visit to New Delhi to participate in a private media conclave on October 23, when he also had a courtesy meeting with the Prime Minister.

New process to appoint envoys

Despite the flurry of visits, the Embassy of Nepal here has been left without an Ambassador for some months since the previous Ambassador, Shankar Prasad Sharma, returned home. Diplomatic sources said that the appointment of a new Nepali Ambassador to India will feature in the talks with Mr. Misri.

Nepal now has a complex new process to appoint envoys, as the new government announced that top ambassadorial posts would be selected through a public application process. In all, around 4,400 candidates had applied for the vacant ambassadorial positions. Nepali diplomatic sources told The Hindu that Kathmandu is awaiting the agrément (diplomatic permission) from India for Nischal Nath Pandey’s arrival in the Nepali Embassy in Delhi. Of the top ambassadorial posts in 13 Nepali missions, three remain uncertain, while Mr. Pandey’s name, along with nine others, has received the necessary clearance in Kathmandu. 

Mr. Misri’s upcoming visit is also expected to review Nepal’s requirements for dealing with the aftermath of the disaster in the Bhote Koshi River, which affected hundreds of Indian families as well, as many individuals remain missing.

‘Personal, not political’

The Foreign Secretary is likely to meet Mr. Lamichhane, who earlier this week paid a visit to Kainchi Dham in Uttarakhand and the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati. The RSP chairman, who travelled to Uttarakhand by road from western Nepal, had described his visit to these pilgrimage centres as “personal and not political”. 

“There are no political meetings planned. Since this is a personal visit, I urge people not to read politics into it,” he said, before starting his pilgrimage in his second visit to India in six months.

Mr. Misri’s conversations in Kathmandu may also include stakeholders from other political parties, though a final outlook on that is yet to be firmed up. It is understood that discussions may include a review of the Balendra Shah-led government, which came to power in March after the RSP’s sweeping electoral victory, defeating the Maoist parties and the Nepali Congress. Since coming to power, Mr. Shah has attempted several new initiatives, the latest of which includes an ordinance that will revise retirement age for government officials, bringing it down to 55 years from 58 years.