KATHMANDU, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) — Nepal’s government formed a dialogue team on Friday to hold talks with southern neighbor India to ease supply of petroleum products ending weeks long blockade.
The cabinet meeting held on Friday morning formed a talk committee under the leadership of Nepalese Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey.
The team will take dialogue initiatives with the Indian government to smooth fuel supply.
The government’s decision comes after two weeks of undeclared Indian blockade that has made Nepalese suffer fuel crisis and shortage of daily essential goods.
However, India has been denying any embargo upon Nepal claiming security reasons behind the halt in fuel supply.
Nepal imports petroleum products only from its southern neighbor India since 1975.
Following the cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Minendra Rijal told the media that the government has also formed a study team to find ways of developing fuel alternatives.
On Thursday, Nepal had called bids from national and international fuel suppliers to supply fuel on land or by air.