Nepal wants Australia to issue visa from its Kathmandu mission

Kathmandu, Aug. 30

Nepal has requested Australia to provide visa services from the Australian Embassy in Kathmandu.

At the second meeting of the Bilateral Consultations Mechanism (BCM) between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia held in Canberra on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal had urged the Deputy Secretary of DFAT, Justin Hayhurst to consider issuing visa services from Kathmandu.

Although Australia has its mission in Kathmandu, visas are issued to Nepalis from the Australian High Commission in New Delhi, India. It has been creating hassles for Nepalis going to Australia.

The Embassy of Nepal in Canberra informed in a statement that Nepal also asked for Australian support in the post-COVID economic recovery, graduation from the status of the Least Developed Country (LDC) and to realise the agenda 2030 of Sustainable Development.

"While appreciating Australian cooperation to Nepal, Paudyal requested the former to place Nepal as a priority country for Australian aid," read the statement.

Paudyal and Hayhurst led their respective delegations to the BCM meeting.

The two sides reviewed the bilateral relations between Nepal and Australia and exchanged views on further strengthening the bilateral relations and cooperation in different fields including education, energy, investment, trade, tourism, technology transfer, migration, cooperation in climate action, and disaster risk reduction, among others.

According to the embassy, both sides agreed to prioritise the exchange of high-level visits, promote people to people contacts, and facilitate trade, investment and transfer of technology. They also discussed cooperation in multilateral forums, including the exchange of experiences in the UN Peace keeping operations.

The Nepali delegation led by the Foreign Secretary comprises Dinesh Kumar  Ghimire, Secretary of Water and Energy Commission, Kailash Raj Pokharel, Ambassador of Nepal to Australia, Lok Bahadur Thapa, Joint Secretary of MoFA, Sita Basnet, Under Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kul Bahadur Magar, Deputy Head of Mission of Embassy of Nepal.

The BCM between the two ministries of Nepal and Australia was established on in  2017 and its first meeting was held in Kathmandu in August 2018.

Earlier on Monday, Paudyal held a meeting with Jan Adams, Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia.

During the meeting, Ghimire and Adams signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries on Cooperation in the fields of water resource management.

Under this MoU, Australia will provide support on capacity development and training technical assistance in water resource management among others.

Nepali delegation had reached Canberra on Sunday. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 31 August 2022.