Now Reading: Indian Army chief Gen Seth meets Nepal PM in Kathmandu, discusses defence ties
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Indian Army chief Gen Seth meets Nepal PM in Kathmandu, discusses defence ties
Indian Army chief Gen Seth meets Nepal PM in Kathmandu, discusses defence ties
Indian Army chief General Dhiraj Seth met Nepal’s Prime Minister and Defence Minister Balendra Shah in Kathmandu on Tuesday and discussed strengthening military ties between the two neighbours. Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava…
Indian Army chief General Dhiraj Seth met Nepal’s Prime Minister and Defence Minister Balendra Shah in Kathmandu on Tuesday and discussed strengthening military ties between the two neighbours. Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava was present at the meeting at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar. The visit comes amid unease in bilateral relations, including a long-standing border dispute over Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani and the suspension of Gurkha recruitment into the Indian Army under the Agnipath scheme.
General Seth was conferred the honorary rank of General of the Nepali Army by President Ramchandra Paudel on Monday, continuing a tradition dating back to 1950. ThePrint notes PM Shah did not attend the ceremony, though previous prime ministers always did, Ratopati reports that Shah met General Seth the next day. ThePrint also states Shah has recently moved away from a self-imposed rule of avoiding one-on-one meetings with foreign ambassadors. The Indian Embassy said the visit reaffirms the time-tested defence relations between the two countries.
General Seth, on a four-day official visit at the invitation of his Nepalese counterpart General Ashok Raj Sigdel, also offered prayers at the Pashupatinath Temple. Sources from the Prime Minister’s Office said discussions focused on continuing military cooperation and joint exercises. No agreement was reached on restarting Gurkha recruitment.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The coverage of General Seth’s visit is broadly uniform wire copy, but Ratopati’s framing is distinctive: it foregrounds PM Balen Shah’s absence from the honorary-general ceremony and interprets the next day’s meeting as a diplomatic breakthrough achieved by military channels. The other outlets mention no such absence and treat the meeting as routine business. Ratopati also quotes a Nepali defence expert, Dr Indra Adhikari, to argue that military diplomacy has opened a door closed by political differences, and it explicitly notes the Gurkha-recruit issue was not discussed. The wire versions (PTI, ThePrint, Times Now) led with the meeting itself and flagged the broader unease in ties, but did not explore the ceremony’s politics. The middle ground: the visit’s formal outcomes, renewing military cooperation and exercises, were modest. The real news is that the meeting happened at all, given Shah’s previous isolation, and that it did not address the sticking point of Gurkha recruitment. Watch for whether Shah now engages other foreign envoys or the Gurkha impasse shifts.
Coverage: 5 sources, 1 government-critical, 4 neutral
Sources (5): indiatvnews.com (neutral report), theprint.in (neutral report), timesnownews.com (neutral report), theprint.in (2) (neutral report), english.ratopati.com (government critical)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 5 sources linked above.
