KATHMANDU: Prime Minister (PM) Balendra Shah is set to hold individual meetings with foreign ambassadors today, marking a significant departure from his earlier practice of avoiding one-on-one interactions with Kathmandu-based envoys.

According to sources, Shah will meet Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming separately, and is scheduled to hold a similar meeting with US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Scott Urbom tomorrow (Tuesday).

The meetings had originally been planned about two weeks ago but were postponed after communal violence erupted in Sunsari and several other districts.

Diplomatic observers view the decision to meet the Indian and Chinese ambassadors on the same day as an effort to underscore the equal importance of Nepal’s two immediate neighbours. However, the sequence of the meetings is also being interpreted as consistent with the government’s stated foreign policy approach of engaging India first and China second.

Srivastava is expected to meet the prime minister during the first half of Monday, while Zhang is scheduled for the latter half of the day. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already informed the respective embassies of the appointments.

Officials said these will be Shah’s first separate courtesy meetings with Kathmandu-based ambassadors since he assumed office on March 27. The discussions are expected to focus mainly on the current status of bilateral relations and any messages conveyed by the respective governments.