Nepalese foreign minister Chakra P Bastola, yesterday said that resumption of Indian Airlines flights to Kathmandu was a technical issue, subject to civil aviation security, and announced that an announcement resuming flights would be made by the Indian ministry of civil aviation soon.
Addressing Ficci, he said that relations between India and Nepal were mutlifaceted and evolved according to the changing situation in the subcontinent.
Multiparty democracy had served to "enhance the political environment for greater trust and confidence, thereby reinforcing respect for each other's aspirations and concerns," he said. Bastola's visit served as a precursor to Nepal Prime Minister GP Koirala's visit to India possibly in July, is an important landmark after December last year, when an Indian Airlines aircraft was hijacked from the Tribhuvan International Airport.
The event had badly soured Indo-Nepal relations.
While India charged Nepal with treating Indian security concerns in a cavalier manner, Nepal felt that India was taking Kathmandu to task for an event (the hijacking) which was not of Nepal's making.
Nepal has now agreed to practically all the security measures India had insisted on, including a supervisory role for Indian Airlines staff in security, ladder-point frisking and attendant measures.
Bastola had candid talks with the foreign minister. Both agreed that an `accountant's way of looking at relations between India and Nepal was not the right way".
Jaswant Singh has let it be known to the Nepalese that his ministry will not treat "Nepal as another province of India".
