Nepal PM Balendra Shah will hold separate meetings with the Indian and Chinese ambassadors, signalling a shift towards direct diplomatic engagement after 100 days in office

Prime Minister Balendra Shah ‘Balen’ is set to hold separate bilateral meetings focussing on bilateral relations with the Indian and Chinese ambassadors to Nepal on Monday, the first such one-on-one diplomatic engagements after more than 100 days in office.

After meeting the Indian envoy first, followed by the Chinese counterpart, Shah will also meet with the US Embassy Charge d’Affaires on Tuesday.

In a departure from a long tradition of individual meetings, Shah, who was sworn-in on March 27 after a landslide win, held a joint courtesy meeting on April 8 with as many as 17 Kathmandu-based Ambassadors and Heads of Diplomatic Missions, including those from India and China, at Singhadurbar, the prime minister’s office.

On Sunday, Foreign Ministry sources said Shah will meet Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava on Monday morning and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming later that afternoon.

It will be followed by a meeting with the US Embassy Charge d’Affaires Scott Urbom on Tuesday and other envoys.

“The Indian ambassador is told to come first, followed by the Chinese ambassador. So both ambassadors are meeting the prime minister on the same day, but the earlier and later timings also show the foreign policy priority of the government,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told The Kathmandu Post.

The Foreign Ministry has communicated the appointments to the respective embassies, the Post said quoting a prime ministerial adviser.

The agenda is expected to be largely introductory, with the ambassadors briefing Shah on the state of bilateral relations and conveying any messages from their respective governments, it said.

The meetings on Monday and Tuesday were delayed due to recent communal violence in Terai and Madhesh region.

The prime minister had earlier avoided one-on-one engagements and even declined to meet the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Samir Paul Kapur and President Donald Trump’s special envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor.

Shah broke his self-imposed rule by holding a one-on-one meeting with Asian Development Bank President Masato Kanda, who visited Nepal for three days beginning July 6.

PM Shah had also not undertaken any visit to either the southern or the northern neighbour and instead Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal made back-to-back visits to New Delhi and Beijing in June.

Khanal had earlier said Nepal wants to build stronger and deeper relations with both India and China, describing the southern and northern neighbours as vital partners for the Himalayan nation and recently said Nepal wants to transform itself from a landlocked country into a “vibrant, dynamic bridge” connecting the two neighbours.