India’s envoys to Nepal and Bangladesh met the prime ministers of their respective host countries almost simultaneously on Monday, as New Delhi sought to reaffirm bilateral ties with two neighbours where relations have grown strained in recent months.
In Kathmandu, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava paid a courtesy call on Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah at Singhadurbar, in the first one-on-one meeting Shah has held with any foreign diplomat since assuming office on March 27. According to Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Office, the hour-long discussion focused on strengthening Nepal-India relations, bilateral cooperation and development partnership. Srivastava, in a post on X, said he had conveyed greetings from Prime Minister Modi and had an “engaging and productive exchange of views” on deepening the two countries’ multi-faceted partnership. Shah had previously avoided individual meetings with envoys, preferring group interactions, and is scheduled to hold similar one-on-one talks with China’s ambassador later Monday and the US Chargé d’Affaires on Tuesday.
In Dhaka, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, days after tensions flared over a virtual press interaction held by former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in New Delhi on August 5. During that address, Hasina said she intended to return to Bangladesh in December, prompting a strong protest from Dhaka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said the remarks had complicated bilateral cooperation.
The near-simultaneous outreach comes against the backdrop of a rockier period in India’s ties with both neighbours. Nepal’s own domestic and diplomatic tensions flared earlier this year when Shah told parliament that Nepal had encroached on Indian territory — a departure from Kathmandu’s traditional position — before Nepal’s Foreign Ministry clarified the remarks referred only to localised boundary-pillar disputes rather than a shift in claims over contested territories such as Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura.