Rana’s southern sojourn

New Delhi exuded utmost warmth seldom seen during a foreign minister-level visit from Nepal.

While briefing about her official visit to India, from August 18 to 22, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba told the Nepali Congress (NC) central committee meeting on Friday that New Delhi’s response to Nepal's new coalition government was ‘positive’. This was a very cautious diplomatic statement. The term ‘positive’ in a diplomatic sense is unambiguously suboptimal in contrast to [being] ‘excited’ or ‘enthusiastic’. There is no hiding the fact that New Delhi was ‘okay’ with the replacement of the Moaist-CPN (UML) coalition by the NC-UML, but it has only sent lukewarm signals on the ascendance of KP Sharma Oli as prime minister, once again.