Indian Army chief to arrive in Nepal on five-day visit on Sept 4

Indian Army chief General Manoj Pande will arrive in Nepal on September 4 on a five-day official visit during which he will hold extensive talks with the country's top civil and military leadership.

During the visit, Gen Pande will call on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also the defence minister.

He will also hold meeting with his Nepalese counterpart Gen Prabhu Ram Sharma and handover various non-lethal military items to Nepal Army, according to a press release issued by the Army Headquarters.

Gen Pande will be conferred the title of honorary General of the Nepal Army by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on September 5, according to Nepal Army sources.

There has been a long tradition of exchange of visits by the army chiefs of Nepal and India and to confer the title of honorary General to both the army chiefs.

Nepal's Chief of Army Staff Gen Sharma visited India in November last year at the invitation of his Indian counterpart. He was conferred with the honorary General of the Indian Army during the visit.

Gen Pande took charge as the 29th Chief of the Army Staff on April 30 after Gen MM Naravane retired from service.

During the visit, he will also hold interaction with the student officers at the Army Command and Staff College, Shivapuri in Kathmandu and pay a visit to Mid-Command Headquarters, Pokhara.

He will also pay homage at the martyr's memorial in the Army Pavilion in Kathmandu. He will leave Kathmandu for New Delhi on September 8.

Nepal is important for India in the context of its overall strategic interests in the region, and the leaders of the two countries have often noted the age-old "Roti Beti" relationship.

The country shares a border of over 1850 km with five Indian states - Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Land-locked Nepal relies heavily on India for the transportation of goods and services. Nepal's access to the sea is through India, and it imports a predominant proportion of its requirements from and through India.