Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah will visit India soon. Shah gave this information in his first meeting with Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava at the Prime Minister’s Office in Singhdarbar on Monday. During this, Indian Ambassador Srivastava handed over a greeting message from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a formal invitation letter for his visit to India to Prime Minister Shah.

According to a member of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, the ambassador also urged Shah to visit India. In response, Prime Minister Shah said, “Thank you for the invitation. I will visit India soon.” Earlier, after becoming the Prime Minister, Shah had adopted a policy of not meeting ambassadors individually, till now he has met the ambassadors collectively.

On Monday, about four and a half months after becoming Prime Minister, he met the Indian and Chinese ambassadors on the same day for the first time. Prime Minister Shah was accompanied by his Principal Private Secretary Suwas Sharma, IT Advisor Vivek Mishra and two officials including Principal Joint Secretary of the India Desk of the Ministry of External Affairs. At the same time, Indian Ambassador Srivastava was accompanied by the Deputy Chief of Mission and political officers.

This was Shah’s first formal meeting with an Indian official after becoming Prime Minister. The meeting ended in about half an hour. An advisor in the Prime Minister’s team said, “The Prime Minister has received the invitation for the visit on Monday itself. This has opened the way for the Prime Minister to visit India. Now it depends on the Prime Minister when to visit.”

Prime Minister Shah had not met any Indian official till now, due to which questions were being raised about his possible visit to India. Meanwhile, in the first week of July, Prime Minister’s principal advisor Kumar Ben had reached Delhi. There he had talks with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his team.

It is said that Ben’s visit to Delhi was an effort to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Shah’s visit to India. Before going to Delhi and also after returning, Ben had talked to Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava. Before Kumar Ben, Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal and Rashtriya Swatantra Party President Ravi Lamichhane have also visited India.