Jun 07, Kathmandu - Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal has made his first official visit to India since the formation of the current government.

Minister Khanal, who arrived in New Delhi last Friday at the invitation of Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, held delegation-level talks with his counterpart on Saturday.

The talks discussed development cooperation, expansion of connectivity, trade and transit, energy, and further enhancing people-to-people ties.

The talks reviewed the overall aspects of Nepal-India relations and exchanged views on regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The two ministers expressed satisfaction over the progress of bilateral cooperation in various fields and welcomed the efforts made in the innovation and startup, digital and financial sectors.

Both sides agreed to intensify efforts to further strengthen the multifaceted partnership between Nepal and India and take it to new heights.

Both sides welcomed the completion of the necessary internal processes for the implementation of the Nepal-India Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement (MLAA).

The agreement will provide an institutional legal basis for effective investigation, prosecution and judicial action related to cross-border crimes.

After the bilateral talks, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar handed over to Foreign Minister Khanal 72 health institutions and 12 cultural heritage projects completed under India's 2015 'Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Assistance' program.

To facilitate cross-border personal remittances between Nepal and India, the two ministers jointly launched the 'Peer-to-Peer' (PTP) connectivity between India's 'Unified Payments Interface' (UPI) and Nepal's 'National Payments Interface' (NPI).

Similarly, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Digital 'India Bhasini' and Kathmandu University with the objective of co-building a national digital infrastructure for the 'Voice First' language translation platform.

While in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Khanal met with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Bharatiya Janata Party's Foreign Department Chief Dr. Vijay Chauthaiwale separately.

The visit provided an opportunity to exchange views on expanding bilateral partnership in line with the aspirations of the people of both countries and has added new energy to the ongoing efforts in that direction.

The visit has also strengthened the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two friendly neighbors. India has been giving high priority to its relations with neighboring countries in South Asia, including Nepal, under its 'Neighborhood First' foreign policy, and has been trying to strengthen mutual trust, connectivity, trade, development partnership and people-to-people ties. This visit of Foreign Minister Khanal is considered to have been successful in strengthening bilateral relations by further enhancing mutual trust and understanding.