Kathmandu, June 7: The delegation led by Minister Khanal arrived back in Nepal this evening.

Speaking to journalists at Tribhuvan International Airport, Minister Khanal described the visit as productive and said that tangible progress had been made toward making Nepal–India relations more practical and technology-friendly. He stated that, in accordance with the memorandum of understanding signed in 2023 between Nepal Clearing House Limited and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), both sides reached an understanding to fully operationalize person-to-person (P2P) cross-border payment transactions.

Minister Khanal also said that 72 health facilities and 12 cultural heritage reconstruction projects completed under India’s post-earthquake reconstruction assistance program had been formally handed over to the Government of Nepal. According to him, an agreement was exchanged between the Center for Digital Public Infrastructure under the School of Engineering at Kathmandu University and the Digital India Bhashini Division to jointly develop a national digital public infrastructure for a “voice-first” language translation platform.

Minister Khanal said, “In line with the memorandum of understanding signed in June 2023, cross-border payment transactions have now been fully launched. We also believe that the new agreement on the language translation platform will contribute to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.”

Minister Khanal noted that he had held productive discussions with India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, on bilateral cooperation in various sectors, diplomacy, and border-related issues. He clarified that the existing mechanisms of both countries were working toward resolving the Nepal–India border dispute.

“Nepal’s clear position is that border-related issues should be resolved through diplomacy and the existing mechanisms currently in operation,” he said. “These mechanisms are working accordingly, and discussions have focused on finding solutions through diplomatic channels.”

Minister Khanal also mentioned that discussions were held regarding air routes for the operation of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa, adding that a meeting of the technical committee on the matter would be convened soon.

Minister Khanal visited India at the invitation of India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar.

People’s News Monitoring Service.

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