MoFA sources said that Khurshid is arriving at 9:15 am on Tuesday morning by a special aircraft of Indian Air Force and fly back to New Delhi later in the evening. He will lead a nine-member delegation.[break]
Earlier on Friday, both Nepal and Indian government had announced a two-day official visit of Minister Khurshid beginning Tuesday. Indian side had informed Nepali side only on Monday that the visit would merely be a day-long. Sources said, Khurshid´s visit was cut short as UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala are out of the country. But Dahal is returning home from Singapore at 12 pm Tuesday.
Officials at MoFA said Minister Khurshid is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Nepali counterpart Madhav Prasad Ghimire at 9:30 am. He will then pay courtesy call on President Dr Ram Baran Yadav and Chairman of Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi.
Minister Khurshid will also hold meeting with the top leaders of the major political parties.
Sources said a letter of exchange on various election support including vehicles and other logistics is likely to take place during the visit. Ministry of Finance is making necessary preparation for the agreement, officials said.
Foreign Affairs experts laud Khurshid´s visit
Arguing that top political level visit would help further cement the relationship between the two countries, former foreign ministers and foreign affairs experts in Nepal have welcomed the visit of Minister Khurshid.
Former ambassador and foreign affairs experts Shambu Ram Simkhada said India has long been playing important role in Nepal to resolve political transition in Nepal. "The goodwill of India is important to resolve the political transition in Nepal. The visit holds special importance in that sense," he said while addressing an interaction organized by Reporters´ Club-Nepal.
Former Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav said the relations between Nepal and India had gone political level. "This is a regular visit. It is natural for Nepalis to expect that the visit by Minister Khurshid would help resolve the difficulties being faced by Nepal," he said.
Former foreign minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said the visit of this nature would help further strengthen the relations between the two countries. "It is a regular practice of foreign minister to visit neighboring countries. In this sense, this is a regular visit. This type of visit will strengthen the friendship," he said while adding that goodwill and support of India would greatly help make upcoming election a success.
However, Chief of UCPN (Maoist) Foreign Relations Department Ram Karki said that visit by a high-level political dignitary of any neighboring country at the time of political stalemate would only create problem. "It is always good for a country to show less concerns in the affairs of a neighboring country facing political stalemate," he said adding that unwarranted concerns by neighbors would only complicated the problem.
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