Building trust and confidence a must before going to India with a wish list, experts advise Nepali leadership

“Ask no favour and take no wish list along. Talk to the other side eye to eye as an equal counterpart,” former foreign secretary Madhu Raman Acharya advises the Nepali prime minister. “Concentrate on issues that need to be resolved at the highest political level.

Focus on building trust and confidence. Let the mechanisms work on the issues; the rest will follow.” India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri returned to Delhi on Thursday after two days of engagements in Kathmandu. In a trip focussed on Prime Minister Shah’s visit to Kathmandu, Misri discussed a range of proposals and agendas put forward by the Nepali side.

Misri paid courtesy calls on the prime minister, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal, Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha and Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal. In these meetings and others with senior officials, potential agendas for the prime minister’s visit were discussed. Both sides have tentatively agreed November 22-25 for Prime Minister Shah's first official bilateral visit since taking office in March.