Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deputed external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to visit Kathmandu to reassure the incoming Communist party government in Nepal of India’s commitment to assist the Himalayan nation in tackling various socio-economic challenges.

Swaraj’s two-day visit from Thursday comes amid New Delhi’s concern over Nepal’s growing proximity with China. “The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level political exchanges between India and Nepal, and reflects the expanding bilateral partnership and the importance that the two countries attach to further strengthening ties across diverse sectors,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

The visit would provide an opportunity to hold talks with political leaders of Nepal on issues of mutual interest and to advance age-old special friendship between the two countries, it added.

According to sources, Swaraj will call on Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and outgoing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, among others. The key objective of her visit is to congratulate the Nepali political leadership on successfully holding three phases of elections ~ at local-level, provincial and parliamentary ~ and extend good wishes to the new government to be formed.

She will also meet CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli, the Prime Minister-in-waiting, who, on Saturday, attended a cultural event in Kathmandu to mark India’s 69th Republic Day as a goodwill gesture. She is expected to invite Oli to India after taking over as Prime Minister. Also on the cards is her meeting CPN-Maoist Centre chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The high-level visit from New Delhi on the eve of the formation of the new government in Nepal is expected to set the tone for high-level exchanges between the two governments.

Last week, in his second telephonic conversation with Oli after the completion of parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the Indian government was ever ready for cooperation with the new government in the making. The UML-led Left alliance, including the CPN-MC, has secured a comfortable majority in the parliamentary elections that concluded in early December.