External Affairs Ministry near PM
Due to the delay in cabinet expansion, the Prime Minister himself is in charge of the Ministry of External Affairs, apart from 15 other ministries. The Prime Minister is likely to visit India between the second and third week of April. However, the official announcement regarding the dates has not been made yet. Chief Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Ramesh Malla told The Kathmandu Post that PM Dahal has already directed the Chief Secretary to form an advance team of representatives from various ministries to discuss the agenda of the yatra so that it can be made fruitful.
This will be PM Dahal’s return visit after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Lumbini in May last year. Sources told The Kathmandu Post that the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs is likely to head the South Asia Division and may lead a team consisting of Joint Secretaries of various other ministers. The team will have representatives from ministries including energy and water resources.
Officials of PMO and Ministry of External Affairs
The Ministry of External Affairs will mostly coordinate with officials from those ministries which have important agenda to be taken up during the visit. It is still uncertain who will lead the team, but officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs will lead the team, Malla told the Post. The date of Prime Minister Dahal’s visit to India will be decided only after he gives full shape to his cabinet.
Will visit before 20th April
Prime Minister Dahal has said that his first foreign visit will be to India. New Delhi sent Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra to Kathmandu last month after the Prime Minister expressed his intention to be the first to visit India. After winning the trust vote on 20 March, Dahal reiterated that he would focus on the planned India tour. Dahal said that I will go to India before 20 April. He told reporters in Parliament that though we have not decided the date of the visit yet, it could be in the first or second week of April.