Kathmandu, Jan. 6 (Nepal Foreign Affairs)–United Nations Undersecretary General Jeffrey Feltman will be arriving in Kathmandu on Thursday on a three-day visit.
Spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tara Prasad Pokharel told that the UN official is scheduled to hold meetings with President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister K.P Sharma Oli and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa and senior leaders of ruling and the agitating parties.
The visit of the UN political chief comes at a time when ruling and the agitating Madhesi parties are intensely engaged in negotiations to end the anti-Constitution protests for the three and half months in Madhes region.
Over 50 people including ten police personnel were killed during the anti-Constitution protests.
On the other hand, Nepal has been hit hard by the shortage of petroleum products and essential goods after India restricted all the supplies through the unofficial trade embargo after Nepal promulgated the new Constitution on September 20 last year. Nepal had been fully dependent on gasoline imports from neighboring India for years.
Earlier, the United Nations had expressed serious concern over the political tensions in Nepal. In a press release in November last year, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on all sides to lift the obstruction on the India-Nepal border without further delay. The UN Secretary-General had also underlined Nepal’s rights of free transit as a landlocked nation as well as for humanitarian reasons.