Nepal Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle called Friday for Nepal and India to deepen economic ties through a regional market, saying closer integration could let Nepal benefit from India's growth.
At the NDTV World Summit, he outlined a common market using the European Union as a reference point. NDTV reported that Wagle said countries could retain sovereignty while goods, people, ideas and capital moved more freely across borders. He described India-Nepal ties as close despite occasional problems: “There could be occasional hiccups, but we're joined at the hip.”
NDTV also reported that Wagle saw India's growth as a source of opportunity for neighboring countries and said a wealthier Indian middle class could bring more tourists to Nepal. He said the idea that Nepali nationalism meant opposition to India belonged to the past.
India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) describes the relationship as including an open border and extensive people-to-people ties. Wagle's proposal covered those cross-border connections as well as commerce, with people and ideas included alongside goods and capital.
The two countries have also cooperated during emergencies. India's Prime Minister's Office said Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah after floods in Nepal on Aug. 26, 2026, conveyed condolences over deaths and said India was ready to provide humanitarian assistance. A report by Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) says an Indian Air Force aircraft carrying rescue personnel and relief supplies reached Kathmandu a few hours after the April 25, 2015, earthquake.
Trade concerns have also featured in the relationship. Then-Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said at a June 1, 2023, joint media briefing that talks with India covered reducing Nepal's growing trade deficit and improving access to the Indian market for Nepali products, according to MOFA. That earlier discussion shows Nepal had raised the trade balance and market access as bilateral concerns before Wagle's summit remarks.
