During the visit, he met his Indian counterpart, Vinay Kwatra, and is scheduled to meet EAM Jaishankar.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra and Nepal's Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal had a bilateral meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The Foreign Secretaries reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral cooperation between India and Nepal, including economic and commercial cooperation, enhancing connectivity, development cooperation, trade, culture and people-people relations, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday.

They expressed satisfaction with the development of several projects and initiatives that had been launched during the recent trips of Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India (April 2022) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lumbini, Nepal (May 2022).

Both sides also appreciated the bilateral cooperation in the power sector, including through the export of power from Nepal to India.

The MEA said, "Recent progress in bilateral cooperation in power sector including through export of power from Nepal to India was appreciated. It was also agreed that both sides will work to further strengthen such cooperation in keeping with the Joint Vision Statement on Power Sector Cooperation adopted during the visit of PM of Nepal to India in April 2022."

The MoUs between IBN Nepal and NHPC India, recently signed to build the West Seti and SR-6 projects, were warmly welcomed by both parties.

Regarding connectivity initiatives, it was acknowledged with satisfaction that the operationalization of the Kurta-Bijalpura segment of the Jayanagar-Bardibas rail link and the Bathnaha-Nepal Custom Yard segment of the Jogbani-Biratnagar rail link, which are important steps in further strengthening the people-to-people links, had advanced.

The Indian side was complimented by the Nepalese side for the Covid-19 support given during the pandemic as well as for maintaining open supply and trade routes even at the peak of the lockdown.

Both parties agreed to move quickly forward on project suggestions for the Ramayana Circuit in order to further promote people-to-people ties.

They also agreed to expeditiously implement extension of petroleum pipeline from Amlekhgunj to Chitwan and construction of an LPG pipeline from Motihari to Chitwan, the MEA added.

Nepalese Foreign Secretary Paudyal, who is in India for a two-day official visit. is also scheduled to meet with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.