Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, on Monday handed over non-lethal military aid in the form of artillery equipment, mine protected vehicles, medical stores and horses to his Nepalese counterpart General Prabhu Ram Sharma, the army said

Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, on Monday handed over non-lethal military aid in the form of artillery equipment, mine protected vehicles, medical stores and horses to his Nepalese counterpart General Prabhu Ram Sharma, the army said.

The Indian Army chief’s four-day official visit to the neighbouring country comes on the back of Kathmandu raising concerns about how the new Agnipath short-term military recruitment model may affect Nepalese citizens, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named.

The army has been recruiting about Nepalese citizens annually for decades for its Gorkha regiments, that have 39 battalions, with recent figures in the recruitments around 2,000. India’s new recruitment scheme seeks to recruit soldiers for only four years, with a provision to retain 25% of them in the regular cadre for 15 years after another round of screening. Nepalese concerns centre around the short-term aspect of recruitment, people familiar with the matter said.

General Pande’s present visit to the Himalayan country seeks to strengthen bilateral defence ties.

“Gen Manoj Pande #COAS laid a wreath at Bir Smarak & received a Guard of Honour at Headquarters #NepaliArmy. #COAS also called on General Prabhu Ram Sharma, Chief of the Army Staff, #NepaliArmy & discussed ways to strengthen bilateral Defence Cooperation,” the army tweeted on Monday evening.

General Pande was also conferred honorary rank of general of the Nepalese Army by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Monday at a special ceremony in Shital Niwas — Bhandari’s official residence,officials said.

Army chiefs of Indian and Nepal are honorary generals of each other’s armies, an arrangement that reflects the strong military connection between the two countries. The tradition has been followed by Nepal and India since 1950, when then Indian army chief, General KM Cariappa, visited Nepal.

HT had reported on August 31 that Nepal is hoping Pande’s visit will help clear the air on the Agnipath recruitment issue.

According to people familiar with developments, the Indian side submitted a formal proposal in July to Nepal seeking approval for recruitment of Nepalese citizens under the Agnipath scheme but there has been no official response from Kathmandu so far.

On August 24, Nepal’s foreign minister, Narayan Khadka, had called Indian envoy, Naveen Srivastava, to the foreign ministry and asked for plans to recruit Nepalese citizens under the new scheme to be deferred until there is consensus on the issue among all political parties in Nepal, according to a report by news portal myRepublica.

India had on June 14 announced the Agnipath scheme, replacing the legacy system of recruitment to lower the age profile of the armed forces, ensure a fitter military and create a technically skilled war fighting force capable of meeting future challenges. The move sparked widespread protests and forced a concerted outreach by the government to scotch apprehensions about the scheme.