Nepal Foreign Minister Rana on five-day visit to India from Sunday

Kathmandu: Nepal Foreign Minister Arzu Deuba Rana will embark on a five-day visit to India from Sunday after a cabinet meeting approved the programme which was initially scheduled as a health checkup visit, a minister said on Friday.

The visit of Rana, who is also the spouse of Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, comes after the cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli on Thursday endorsed the India-visit programme of a delegation led by the Foreign Minister, said Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung.

This will be Rana's first official visit to a foreign country after assuming charge.

Rana will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar among others during the visit, Foreign Ministry sources said.

The visit by Rana is taking place a week after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited the Himalayan nation.

Rana, 62, was earlier scheduled to visit Delhi for a routine health checkup but the visit turned into an official one after she received an invitation from the Indian government, according to Foreign Affairs ministry sources.

According to sources, the foreign minister will visit a prominent private hospital in New Delhi for a follow-up checkup related to her previous operation for hyperparathyroidism.