Gen Dhiraj Seth Nepal visit began on Sunday, with the Chief of the Army Staff leaving for Kathmandu to receive the honorary rank of General of the Nepali Army, an exchange between the two forces that dates to 1950.

It is also his first foreign trip of consequence as chief. The Gen Dhiraj Seth Nepal engagement comes at the invitation of Gen Ashok Sigdel, his Nepali counterpart, and is the first visit to Kathmandu by a senior Indian official since Prime Minister Balendra Shah's government took office on 27 March.

In a post confirming the departure, the Army said the visit was meant to widen mutual understanding and firm up bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries.


A visit that lands amid protocol uncertainty in Kathmandu

Whether Gen Seth will call on Shah remains unsettled even hours before his arrival. India's Ministry of External Affairs had sought a meeting between the two, a request passed on to Nepal's Ministry of Defence and Nepali Army headquarters to schedule. Shah, four months into office, has kept a tight protocol with foreign visitors, meeting the Indian and Chinese ambassadors separately only last week rather than jointly.

"It is still not confirmed if General Seth will call on the prime minister," an aide to Shah said. "If there is a change in the plan, it will be communicated accordingly."

The uncertainty sits against an earlier postponement. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had a Kathmandu visit pushed back for protocol related reasons before it could take place, leaving Seth as the first senior figure from New Delhi to test the new government's approach to high level engagement.

Gen Dhiraj Seth Nepal ties draw on a tradition older than either government

The honorary rank exchange between the two armies began in 1950, when Gen KM Cariappa became the first Indian Army chief to hold the Nepali rank. It has continued through successive changes of government on both sides of the border since.

Basnet framed the practice as procedural rather than exceptional.

"Whenever a new army chief assumes office in either country, there is a tradition of exchanging high level visits during which both chiefs are conferred with the honorary rank of General," said Brig Gen Rajaram Basnet, spokesperson for the Nepali Army. The exchange was last completed in the other direction in December 2024, when Gen Sigdel received the honorary rank of General of the Indian Army from President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony in New Delhi, an event covered at the time by All India Radio's news service.

What the Army's own programme says

The Army's own graphic marking the departure frames the visit as running from 17 to 19 August, even though Seth left Indian shores on Sunday. Some domestic accounts have instead described it as a four day engagement bracketing the travel dates either side, without either version being formally reconciled.

Basnet confirmed the core of the programme regardless of that framing.

"I can confirm that General Seth is arriving in Kathmandu on Sunday and is going to receive the honorary rank of general from the President on Monday," he said. "The rest of his itinerary is dealt with by the Indian side." President Ramchandra Paudel will conduct the investiture, continuing a role every sitting Nepali president has performed for a visiting Indian Army chief since the tradition began seven decades ago.

Who is travelling to Kathmandu

Seth took over as the 31st Chief of the Army Staff on 30 June, becoming the first Armoured Corps officer to lead the Indian Army since 1997. His most recent domestic engagement took him to Headquarters Central Command in Lucknow, before Kathmandu became the first foreign capital on his calendar as chief.

Sigdel has held the Nepali Army's top post since 2023.

The two chiefs are expected to hold their own bilateral meeting during the visit, separate from any call on the prime minister, with Nepali Army sources indicating it will cover the routine ground of training exchanges, equipment support and border liaison that such meetings typically carry between the two forces.

The Agniveer question sitting alongside the ceremony

One unresolved issue runs underneath the itinerary. Nepal has not permitted its citizens to join the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments under the Agnipath scheme since the four year Agniveer model was introduced in 2022, under which a quarter of recruits are retained beyond the initial term and the rest complete their service and exit with a lump sum.

Former Gorkha soldiers and young job seekers pressed that demand again this month, with rallies in Pokhara calling on Kathmandu to reopen recruitment.

Some Indian reports have suggested Seth could raise the subject in his meetings with Nepali officials, though neither side has confirmed it forms part of the agenda. The Gorkha relationship remains, by most measures, the oldest continuous thread in India Nepal military ties, running well before either country's current government took shape.