Nepal urges India to suspend recruitment of Gorkha soldiers under Agnipath scheme

Nepal has urged India to suspend the recruitment of Gorkhas to the Indian Army under the newly introduced Agnipath scheme, according to media reports here on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Narayan Khadke on Wednesday met with India's Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava and requested him to postpone the plan to recruit Nepali youths under the new scheme, according to My Republica daily.

Another report in the Kathmandu Post said that the meeting took place just a day before the Indian Army's scheduled plan to recruit Nepali youths in Butwal in Lumbini Province, for its Gorkha regiments.

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"Although the Nepal government is positive about facilitating the recruitment of Gorkhas in the Indian Army but the government will formally make the decision regarding the matter after holding talks with other major political parties as the government of India has introduced the new military recruitment," Khadke told the Indian envoy during the meeting held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Kantipur daily said.

While unveiling the scheme in June, the Indian government said youths between the age of 17 and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure while 25 per cent of them will be subsequently inducted for regular service.

Nepalese youths have been recruited in the Indian Army for a long time since the Tripartite agreement signed between Nepal, India and UK in 1947 made a provision to recruit Nepalese youths in the British and Indian Armies.

In New Delhi, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian Army has been inducting Gorkha soldiers from Nepal for a long time and it's looking forward to continuing the process under the Agnipath recruitment scheme.

The Indian Army's Gorkha regiments have 43 battalions and they comprise Indian soldiers as well as those recruited from Nepal.

The development comes ahead of Indian Army chief General Manoj Pande's planned five-day official visit to Nepal on September 4 during which he will hold extensive talks with the country's top civil and military leadership.

The main purpose of General Pande's visit is to receive the title of honorary General of Nepal Army to be conferred by President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

There has been a long tradition of exchange of visits by the army chiefs of Nepal and India and conferring the title of honorary General to both the army chiefs.