NEW DELHI: Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi will be on a four-day visit to Nepal this week to reinforce the deep-rooted bilateral military ties, which have come under a cloud after Kathmandu’s refused to allow its youth to join Indian armed forces under Agnipath scheme, even as China assiduously continues to make deep strategic inroads into the landlocked Himalayan nation.
Gen Dwivedi will focus on further cranking up the long-standing close military collaboration between the two armies, ranging from combat exercises and training programmes to modernisation and capacity-building.
This year alone, for instance, over 300 Nepal Army personnel have been trained in Indian military establishments, while New Delhi has also been supporting Kathmandu in its military modernisation by supplying hardware and software, including small arms, vehicles, and advanced training simulators.
The scope and complexity of annual Surya Kiran joint military exercise, the 18th edition of which will be held in Nepal next month, is also being expanded to enhance the interoperability and synergy between the two armies.
Gen Dwivedi will also be conferred with the honorary rank of General of Nepal Army during the visit, as per a long-standing tradition. The elephant in the room, however, will be the differences over recruitment of soldiers for just four years, without pension or ex-servicemen benefits, under the Agnipath scheme rolled out in June 2022.
“Taking the Covid pandemic into account, Nepal-domicile Gorkhas haven’t been recruited into Indian Army, including the seven regiments of Gorkha Rifles, for five years now. This does not augur well for bilateral relations. The govts must work out a mutually acceptable solution,” said a senior officer.
This becomes especially important given China’s fast-expanding arc of influence in Nepal, which has also hopped onto the former’s Belt and Road Initiative. Moreover, Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli is slated to head for China next month on his first bilateral foreign visit, in yet another break from long-standing tradition of visiting India first.
It was in 1947 that Indian Army began recruiting Nepalese Gorkhas under the Tripartite Agreement signed with Nepal and UK. There are currently 30,000 Nepali citizens serving in Indian Army.