Kathmandu, Nepal, August 27, 2019: Following the completion of Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s two-day official visit to Nepal, country’s diplomacy fell under the hotspot. Not only the immediate neighbors like China and Pakistan but also the world has been keenly observing the recent visit of Jaishankar taking its as an endeavoring the comprehension of a new turn in Indo-Nepal bilateral dynamics.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi telephoned Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on the day when Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar completed his two-day Nepal visit on August 22. Though Jaishankar had come here to take part in the fifth conference of Nepal-India Joint Commission held on 21-22 August in Kathmandu, he had engaged on rounds of discussions with various Nepalese leaders.
Believing that Jaishanker would have engaged most to convince the Nepalese authorities over the issue of its actions at the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi called his Nepalese counterpart Gyawali seeking Nepal’s support for the Pak stance over Jammu and Kashmir.
Underlining that the steps taken by India in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir entailed a grave risk for peace and security in the region, Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi urged Nepal to play its role as South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Chair for peace and stability in the region and impress upon India to ease the suffering of the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Both the India and Pakistan have intensified diplomatic efforts to solicit support of the immediate neighbors and the wider international community for their respective stances following the Indian move that Article 370 of the Indian constitution. The constitution provision had been granting special status to the state, its demotion to union territory from statehood, and bifurcation into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir.
Likewise, Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi is going to arrive in Nepal on a two-day official visit in the second week of September. Though the purpose Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang’s visit to Nepal is termed to set the stage for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s likely visit in October, it is said that Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s recent visit to Nepal and his extra engagement on Jammu and Kashmir issue would have set a stage to welcome Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang’s visit to Nepal.
Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang’s scheduled visit to Nepal will be the first high-level visit from the Chinese side since the formation of the incumbent Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led government under the leadership of its co-chair KP Sharma Oli.
As Foreign Minister Gyawali had invited Wang to visit Nepal when he travelled to Beijing in the first week of July to attend the 13th World Economic Forum annual meeting in Dalian, Nepalese officials hesitate to linkup the Wang’s visit with the recent visit of Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar.
As Indian and China are the immediate neighbor countries of Nepal, diplomatic interests of both the neighboring countries are also high in Nepal. It is said that northern neighbor China has cautiously been watching Nepal’s role on Jammu and Kashmir though it does not mention the issues formally.
