Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said India and Nepal will soon be connected through two rail links.
Speaking at an inaugural session of the training module on India’s neighborhood organized by Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, the Indian foreign secretary stated that globalization begins with neighborhood and it is a neighborhood that comes first and foremost amongst all Indian foreign policy priorities.
“The Neighborhood First Policy, at the instance of the Prime Minister, accords the highest priority to our relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka,” says Shringla.
He said that India maintains excellent political relations with neighboring countries. You might recall that South Asian leaders were invited when the present government was sworn in for the first time in 2014. Leaders of BIMSTEC countries, which include several of our neighbors on the Bay of Bengal littoral, were invited when the government was sworn in for the second time in 2019, he said.
He further stated that neighborhood policy also attaches strong economic dimensions and creates a geographic space with neighbors. “We believe that economic good is not just good in itself. It will also create win-win propositions for the region that will address any impediments that we confront.”
He said the second area of focus of India’s neighborhood policy in the energy sector. Stating that the Indian grid is connected to Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh through high-capacity connections, the Indian foreign secretary said that the trans-national movement of electricity in the neighborhood is a reality.
He said healthcare and education are two important areas in which India is working closely with its partners in the neighborhood. Stating that India has emerged as the educational hub of this region, tens of thousands of students from neighboring countries are enrolled in Indian institutions.
