New India envoy Rae arriving on Monday
NEW DELHI, AUG 29 -
Newly appointed Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Ranjit Rae, will be landing in Kathmandu on Monday to take up his third ambassador ial assignment after Vietnam and Hungary. He will present his Letter of Credence to President Ram Baran Yadav on Wednesday, along with two other ambassador s at the President’s office.
A well-known Nepali hand, Rae, who had previously served as Joint Secretary, North (Nepal- Bhutan) from 2002 to 2006, has served at various Indian diplomatic missions at various capacities before taking two ambassador ial appointments.
“I am delighted,” he said, talking to the Post at India International Center, a semi-academic institution in the Indian capital on Wednesday afternoon. Terming Nepal as a “dream country”, Rae said he has always loved to visit Nepal.
At a time when Nepal is bracing for the second elections of the Constituent Assembly, Rae preferred to steer clear from politics, but spoke highly of Nepali arts, painting and architecture.
“Nepal has one of the best stores of handicraft heritage, ranging from Thanka painting to traditional paintings which are equally panoramic. India could be a great market for such paintings, arts and heritage, but they have hardly found markets in India.”
Another reason why he believed Nepal as dream country is Nepali trail and trekking. An avid trekker, Rae had trekked on the Thorangla-Mustang-Muktinath-Kagbeni circuit about ten years ago, which he still remembers vividly. “That was one of my unforgettable moments in my life,” he remembered. He had also visited world heritage sites in Janakpur and Lumbini in the past and expressed desire to travel across Mt Everest region. “There are possibility of developing a Buddhist circuit between Nepal and India,” said Rae.
Rae also expressed desire to travel across Nepal from the hills to the Tarai. “There is no other country in the world that can match Nepal’s natural beauty,” he said, adding
that he had visited Kathmandu at least a dozen times in the past while he was serving as a point man at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs as Joint Secretary (North). He used to travel Kathmandu frequently in those days at a time when Nepal was undergoing a huge political transformation between October 2002 and January 2006.
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