Jaishankar Begins Bhutan Visit as Nepal Finance Minister Heads to Delhi

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in Thimphu on Wednesday for a two-day visit to Bhutan, opening a fresh round of neighbourhood engagement days after the BRICS Summit. In central Bhutan's Bumthang, he held bilateral discussions with Bhutanese Foreign Minister Lyonpo D.N. Dhungyel.

In a post describing the talks, Mr. Jaishankar said the conversation covered development partnership, energy, trade, connectivity, culture and people-to-people ties. The two ministers also laid the foundation stone for a hydropower project and inaugurated a bridge and a hospital in different parts of the country.

On Thursday, the External Affairs Minister is scheduled to meet Bhutan's fifth King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, and call on Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, according to a Ministry of External Affairs release.

Separately, Nepal's Finance Minister, Swarnim Wagle, will arrive in Delhi on Thursday for a two-day visit. He is expected to hold talks with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other ministers, and to meet diplomatic and economic experts and academics.

His visit comes two weeks after deadly flash floods in Nepal that claimed nearly 1,400 lives and caused extensive damage to infrastructure. India sent more than 130 tonnes of relief material and 54 expert personnel to assist with rescue, relief and forensic operations, and approved the export of power to the flood-hit areas.

Mr. Wagle is also expected to address remarks by Nepal's Foreign Minister, Shishir Khanal, who said India, China and the United States should pay "compensation" to countries such as Nepal as "climate polluters" bearing responsibility for global warming, which he described as a regional threat.

The two visits follow last week's trip by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Colombo — the first by an Indian Defence Minister in nearly four decades — aimed at strengthening strategic ties.

They also come days after the BRICS Summit, where the government hosted leaders from more than 20 countries but none from India's neighbourhood. The only South Asian invitee, Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, declined, amid tensions between the two countries. Dhaka questioned the nature of the invitation, which was addressed to Mr. Rahman in his capacity as chair of the BIMSTEC regional grouping; the MEA clarified on Tuesday that a separate invitation had also been sent to him as Prime Minister.

The absence of a regional leader contrasted with earlier summits. At the 2016 BRICS Summit in Goa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted leaders of BIMSTEC countries, including the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, at an outreach session. Neighbourhood leaders were also invited to the 2023 G-20 Summit and to an AI Summit in February this year.

MEA officials, asked about the lack of South Asian representation, said preparations for the BRICS Summit focused on representation from "Global South" countries. Besides 10 BRICS partners, the government invited chairs of regional groupings from the developing world, including the Philippines (ASEAN), Burundi (African Union), Bahrain (GCC) and Uruguay (CELAC), along with BIMSTEC.

Commentators described the omission as a missed opportunity. Former High Commissioner to Pakistan and Canada Ajay Bisaria, speaking at a weekly discussion, said India's neighbours should have been invited, adding that a better outcome would have seen BIMSTEC neighbours present even if SAARC members were not, and noting that India-Bangladesh tensions and possibly the Nepal floods precluded broader regional representation. Academic and commentator Happymon Jacob said it was a "shame" that India had not convened a regional mechanism on the sidelines of the summit.