Nepal said it would decide to recruit Gorkha soldiers under Agnipath after polls on November 20.
Kathmandu:
Nepal will make a decision on the recruitment of Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army under the Agnipath plan after a new government is formed following the November 20 general election, the country’s foreign ministry said on Thursday. .
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sewa Lamsal during a press conference in Kathmandu said the chances of an immediate decision on short-term recruitment plans for the Indian armed forces were slim.
The ministry spokesman’s statement came in response to media reports quoting General Manoj Pande of the Indian army as saying that India may be forced to withdraw its troop vacancies from Nepal under the their new Agnipath plan in the ongoing cycle if the landlocked nation doesn’t make the decision soon.
General Pande visited Nepal last week and held extensive talks with his counterpart and met with the Himalayan nation’s top leadership.
The recruitment of Gorkhas under a short-term recruitment plan for the Indian army was scheduled to begin on August 24. However, this was suspended at the request of Nepal.
“Nepal will not immediately hold a dialogue or discuss the matter regarding the recruitment of Gorkha soldiers into the Indian Army with the Indian authorities,” a Nepalese foreign ministry spokesman told the live news site. online Nepalkhabar.com quoted speech.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the new government formed after the general election on 20 November will decide on the issues related to the recruitment of Gorkha soldiers into the Indian Army under the Agnipath plan proposed by India. float.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
