Nepal PM Oli’s visit will chart the course for future ties

Keeping with the tradition in India-Nepal ties, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli will visit India first after taking over. He lands in New Delhi on Friday. Officials and experts say New Delhi should expect a tougher stand from Mr. Oli, who is armed with a massive election mandate, winning his confidence vote with a 4/5th majority, and has taken new administrative powers in the past few weeks.

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“Expect a visit that sets the course for the future of ties between India and Nepal,” said an Indian official involved in the planning of Mr. Oli’s visit. “This won’t be about the nitty-gritty of agreements, but about putting the past behind us and presenting big ideas for moving ahead.”

“Oli comes to India with three-tier elections behind him, which he has won convincingly, from a polity that has adopted the new constitution. During his last visit to New Delhi in 2016, this wasn’t the case, and he had arrived after the blockade, so he was in a less secure and more challenging mood,” says Himal magazine founder Kanak Mani Dixit.

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Most say the 2015 blockade, where New Delhi was accused of withholding trucks at the border with Nepal for four months to support Madhesi protesters and put pressure on the Nepali government to amend its constitution, has now been put behind.

Mr. Modi, too, is not expected to raise concerns about the constitution vocally during the visit. Even so, Mr. Oli’s ultranationalist anti-India poll campaign, and his plan to implement a 10-point agreement with China for infrastructure and energy projects, might mean a more “equidistant” foreign policy stance with India and China than in the past.

“Post-blockade Nepal is no longer afraid of any foreign country. It has more confidence,” Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali told the Nepali Times.