China agrees to reopen Tatopani

Kathmandu, June 20: Nepal and China have agreed to work jointly to reopen the Tatopani border point at the earliest.

The 11^th meeting of the Diplomatic Consultation Mechanism - a bilateral Foreign Ministry level body involving the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of both neighbours - at Singha Durbar on Tuesday agreed to resume the northern border point, which had been out of operation following the destruction caused by the devastating Gorkha Earthquake in 2015.

Nepal has been time and again urging China to reopen the Tatopani border point. It has been a major agenda every time a prime ministers of Nepal visited the northern neighbour.

"The Nepali side emphasised the need of the early resumption of the Tatopani-Zhangmu border point. The Chinese side responded positively to Nepal's proposal," read a statement issued by the ministry.

According to the ministry, Nepal expressed the hope that cross-border connectivity, infrastructure development, diversification of Nepal's trade, promotion of investment and tourism would receive priority while implementing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative sighed by the two countries on May 12.

The meeting discussed ways to further enhance coordination and facilitation for the promotion of Nepal's tourism prospects in China in the context of the Chinese Government's announcement of 2017 as 'Nepal's Tourism Promotion Year in China'.

Both the countries shared views on maintaining the tradition of regular exchange of high level visits.

Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi and Chinese Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kong Xuanyou led the delegations of their respective countries.

Bairagi led a 21-member delegation comprising senior officials from the MoFA as well as representatives of other ministries and agencies while Kong led a 12-member delegation comprising Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong and other senior officials of the Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu.

The visiting assistant minister is scheduled to pay courtesy calls on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara Wednesday.

He will also visit the reconstruction projects in Kathmandu that are being implemented with Chinese grant assistance.

The Joint Consultation Mechanism was set up in 1996 as a platform for discussing matters of mutual concerns and cooperation at the senior officials’ level between the Foreign Ministries of Nepal and China.

The meeting was held after four years. The 10^th meeting was organised in Beijing in 2013.