14th meeting of India-Nepal BCGSI concludes

The 14th meeting of the India-Nepal Bilateral Consultative Group on Security Issues (BCGSI) concluded in Bengaluru on Friday.

The two-day meeting discussed issues relating to mutual security concerns, training and capacity building requirements of the Nepali Army, cooperation in disaster management, address to the requirements of the Nepali Army for various defence stores, exchange of experts/instructors, exchange of high level and functional level visits, joint expeditions and adventure sports activities and information sharing.

The Nepalese delegation was led by Tirtha Raj Wagle, Joint Secretary (South Asia) at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian delegation was led by Anurag Srivastava, Joint Secretary (North), the Ministry of External Affairs of India. The delegations comprised officials from respective Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Directorates of the Nepali Army and Indian Army and from the National Disaster Management Authority of Nepal.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Public Relations and Information of Nepal Army said in a statement that the meeting was fruitful in further strengthening relations between Nepal and India and addressing bilateral security concerns. The India-Nepal BCGSI was established 18 years ago in a bid to discuss bilateral security concerns between Nepal and India at joint-secretary level. The annual meeting had failed to take place for previous two consecutive years due to COVID-19.