Kathmandu: New ambassador of India to Nepal Naveen Srivastav has arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday afternoon to take charge of his office. Upon his arrival at the Tribhuwan International Airport, the Indian envoy was received by protocol officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Indian Mission’s Charge d’affaires, Namgya Khampa along with others.
Succeeding Vinay Mohan Kwatra, the incumbent Foreign Secretary of India who completed his assignment earlier in the month of April, Srivastava will take full charge as Envoy to Nepal after submitting his credentials to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari early this week.
Seasoned diplomat Srivastava – who was India’s ambassador to Cambodia from 2015 to 2017 and has served in Washington, Beijing and Hong Kong under different capacities – was appointed India’s new ambassador to Nepal last month.
In his capacity as additional secretary in the East Asia division, Srivastava headed the Indian delegation in several rounds of diplomatic talks in the virtual format with China on the eastern Ladakh border row.
He was also part of the Indian delegation in a few rounds of military talks between the two sides on the border row.
Nepal is important for India in the context of its overall strategic interests in the region, and the leaders of the two countries have often noted the age-old “Roti Beti” relationship.
The Himalayan nation shares a border of over 1,850 km with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The land-locked country relies heavily on India for the transportation of goods and services. Nepal’s access to the sea is through India, and it imports a predominant proportion of its requirements from and through India.
The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 forms the bedrock of the special relations between the two countries.
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