Balen Shah begins one-on-one envoy meetings with India, China and US

Kathmandu,UPDATED: Aug 9, 2026 15:12 IST

Prime Minister Balendra Shah 'Balen' is set to hold separate bilateral meetings with the Indian and Chinese ambassadors to Nepal on Monday, in his first one-on-one diplomatic engagements more than 100 days after taking office. He is also scheduled to meet the US Embassy Charg d'Affaires on Tuesday.

The meetings are expected to focus on bilateral relations and will mark a shift from Shah's earlier approach of avoiding individual diplomatic engagements. Officials said the agenda will largely be introductory, with the envoys briefing the prime minister on the state of ties and conveying messages from their respective governments.

According to Foreign Ministry sources, Shah will first meet Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava on Monday morning, followed by Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming later in the day. A meeting with US Embassy Charg d'Affaires Scott Urbom is scheduled for Tuesday, along with meetings with other envoys.

Shah, who was sworn in on March 27 after a landslide win, had earlier departed from long-standing practice by holding a joint courtesy meeting with 17 Kathmandu-based ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions on April 8 at Singhadurbar, the prime minister's office. The group included envoys from India and China.

"The Indian ambassador is told to come first, followed by the Chinese ambassador. So both ambassadors are meeting the prime minister on the same day, but the earlier and later timings also show the foreign policy priority of the government," a senior Foreign Ministry official told The Kathmandu Post. The newspaper also quoted a prime ministerial adviser as saying that the ministry had communicated the appointments to the respective embassies.

The meetings on Monday and Tuesday were delayed because of recent communal violence in the Terai and Madhesh region. Before this, Shah had avoided one-on-one engagements and had even declined to meet US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Samir Paul Kapur and President Donald Trump's special envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor. He later broke this self-imposed rule when he held an individual meeting with Asian Development Bank President Masato Kanda during the latter's three-day Nepal visit beginning July 6.

Shah has also not made any visit to either India or China so far. Instead, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal made back-to-back visits to New Delhi and Beijing in June. Khanal has said Nepal wants stronger and deeper relations with both India and China, calling the southern and northern neighbours vital partners for the Himalayan nation. He has also said Nepal wants to transform itself from a landlocked country into a "vibrant, dynamic bridge" connecting the two neighbours.

With the meetings with the Indian, Chinese and US envoys now lined up, Shah appears set to begin direct diplomatic outreach after months of avoiding individual engagements, with bilateral ties expected to be at the centre of the discussions.

With PTI Inputs

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