President of India visits Nepal

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, the current President of India paid a three-day visit (the first for 20 years) to Nepal at the invitation of President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee  said: «We have learnt from our own experience that sustainable socio-economic development can only be achieved in an environment of peace, stability and a participatory democracy, and where every section of the society is an equal stakeholder in political processes and the outcomes».

«But we do manage any such differences with sensitivity, goodwill and utmost understanding of each other’s vital interests. This has been the case throughout the history of India-Nepal relations», added the President of India.

The summit was held after the adoption of Nepal's new constitution last month, which, according to India, violating the rights of its citizens living and working in the neighboring country. Most likely, the president's visit was connected with this.

«Going forward, I firmly believe that India and Nepal need to do more to work together for our common goal of development, peace, economic prosperity and well being of our two peoples», as saying Pranab Kumar Mukherjee.

Some experts have considered the visit as a formal one, because the leader of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn't arrived in Nepal, but the president, the rather formal head of the country. However, this opinion is mistaken. The relations between India and Nepal began to improve in the early 2000s, when Pranab Mukherjee was the Foreign Minister of India, and the current Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal took his office for the first time (he had been a minister less than a year in 2008, then he returned to his post only in 2016).