News

AIDIA-MP IDSA to host joint webinar on COVID-19 and Nepal-India relations

2020-05-20

May 20, 2020          

Kathmandu based foreign-policy think tank, Asian Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs (AIDIA) in collaboration with the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) is hosting a joint webinar on "Covid-19 and Nepal-India Relations" on May 22.

Nepal-India shares very close trade and economic inter linkages including trade, tourism and investment. Similarly, cross-labour migration also holds the important part of bilateral economic engagements. But, covid-19 has presented new set of challenges due to which the trade has been halted, travel and tourism industry has fall down, migrants worker have been stranded in the borders.     

Sunil KC, CEO of AIDIA said, "The webinar intends to dwell deep into the Nepal-India relations during and post-Covid19. The major focus areas would remain economy, migrants, diaspora and borders ". The outcome of the virtual discussion could be important for shaping the right policy response to deal with this pandemic and minimize the socio-economic impact in bilateral level, Sunil added.          

From Nepali side, Member of Parliaments - Surendra Pandey and Abishek Pratap Shah, Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti (Head, Policy Research Institute), Dr. Bindu N. Lohani (Former VC of ADB) and Dr. Govind Prasad Pokharel (Former VC of NPC) will take part in the webinar. Similarly, Ambassador Sujan R. Chinoy (Director General, MP IDSA), Prof. S.D Muni, Prof. Mahendra P. Lama, former Ambassadors to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri and Ranjit Rae and Dr. Nihar R. Nayak is taking part in discussion from Indian side.    

AIDIA is a Kathmandu based independent think-tank engaged in creating forums for discussions and debates in geopolitical and geo-economic issues confronting the international community. MP IDSA is a non-partisan and autonomous Indian Think tank dedicated for security and defence research and studies which is funded by Ministry of Defence, Government of India.