Neighbourhood Outreach, Shringla Style

In keeping with India’s foreign policy dictum of ‘Neighbourhood First’, new foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has begun his outreach to the envoys of these countries by meeting them before the envoys of other countries. The first envoy Shringla met after he took charge less than a month ago is Nepal’s ambassador of Nepal Nilambar Acharya. This was followed by meetings with the new Bangladesh high commissioner to India Muhammad Imran, Bhutanese envoy Major General V. Namgyel and high commissioner of Maldives Aishah Didi.

The meeting with Acharya that was slated to last about half an hour stretched for nearly two hours. So did the two converse in Nepali with the FS being fluent in the language by virtue of his Sikkimese heritage? They did, we learn, but only when it  came to the more personal part of their conversation. They stuck to English when it came to talking business.