Nepal PM pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat

The Prime Minister is on a three-day India visit.

He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi today at Hyderabad house in Delhi.

A day earlier, Deuba met Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda at the party headquarters on Friday and discussed strengthening the ties between the Nepali Congress and the BJP.

The Nepal PM was accompanied by his wife Arzu Deuba, Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka, Energy and Water Resources Minister Pampha Bhusal and Health Minister Mahendra Rai Yadav during the meeting. PM Deuba was attending the meeting at the invitation of BJP President JP Nadda.

The discussion was held in a cordial environment and political ideas were also exchanged, BJP Foreign cell head Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale informed about the meeting.

The two leaders discussed exchange programs involving youth exchange as well as women delegation exchange and said that they will take forward 'party-to-party' dialogues between the BJP and the Nepali Congress.

After meeting BJP President, Nepal PM met the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla in Delhi.

The Nepal PM arrived in New Delhi on Friday, to kickstart his first visit to the country since assuming office in July last year. Nepal's Prime Minister is visiting India at the invitation of PM Modi.Besides official engagements in New Delhi, the Nepal PM will visit Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

In a press statement, the MEA said India and Nepal enjoy age-old special ties of friendship and cooperation.

The last Head of State/Head of Government-level visit from Nepal was in May 2019, when then PM K P Oli visited India for the swearing-in ceremony of PM Narendra Modi and the Union Council of Ministers. Before that PM Modi had visited Nepal in August 2018 for the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu, which was preceded by a State Visit to Nepal in May 2018.

Sher Bahadur Deuba is a veteran politician of the Nepali Congress with a political career spanning over seven decades. This is Deuba's fifth tenure as PM. His first term was from September 1995 to March 1997.

He has visited India several times, both when in and out of power. This will be his fifth visit to India as PM, with the last visit being in August 2018. The previous three visits took place in 2004, 2002 and 1996. (ANI)