Shyam Saran: “The sooner we abandon the belief that India is always conspiring in Nepal, the better.”

In an exclusive conversation with Onlinekhabar, former Indian Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Nepal, Shyam Saran, reflects on two decades of India–Nepal diplomacy and the importance of moving beyond outdated suspicions.

Shyam Saran has played a pivotal role in shaping India–Nepal relations over the past 25 years. Serving as India’s Ambassador to Nepal from 2002 to 2004, and soon after as Foreign Secretary, Saran was instrumental in facilitating the 12-point agreement between Nepal’s then seven-party alliance and the Maoists in New Delhi. That agreement laid the groundwork for Nepal’s 2005–06 people’s movement, which led to the end of monarchy and the establishment of federalism and secularism.