Itinerary includes project signing and Pokhara Airport completion ceremony
Kathmandu, Mar. 25
State Councilor and Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi arrived in Kathmandu on
Friday for a three-day official visit to Nepal.
He is in Kathmandu at the invitation of
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Narayan Khadka.
Upon his arrival at the Tribhuvan
International Airport, Wang was received by Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj
Paudyal and other officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) this
afternoon.
The visiting Chinese Foreign Minister will
hold delegation-level bilateral talks with Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr.
Narayan Khadka on Saturday, according to the MoFA.
Following the meeting, there will be a
signing ceremony for a couple of projects to be developed in Nepal under the
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – an initiative for connectivity and
infrastructure development announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Nepal had
already signed agreement for the implementation of infrastructure and
industrial projects in Nepal under the BRI.
He is making the first high-level visit to
Nepal since Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba assumed the post of the Prime
Minister in July 2020. During his visit, he will pay courtesy calls on
President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Sunday and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
on Saturday.
A virtual completion ceremony of the
Pokhara Regional International Airport will be organised Saturday evening in
the presence of Prime Minister Deuba. The airport was constructed with the
support of China.
Wang will also meet former PM and chairman
of CPN (UML) KP Sharma Oli and former PM and chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre)
Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' on Sunday.
FM Wang is leading a 20-member delegation,
including China's Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi, Assistant Ministers of
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Commerce, Wu Jianghao and Sheng
Qiuping respectively.
Likewise, Nepali delegation led by Dr.
Khadka includes Foreign Secretary Paudyal, and secretaries of Ministry of
Finance, Tourism, Home Affairs, Energy, Agriculture, Industry, Physical
Infrastructure, Health, and Land Management, and high officials from the MoFA.
The Chinese FM had arrived in Kathmandu
after concluding his visit to Pakistan, Afghanistan and New Delhi, India. He
will depart for Beijing by a special aircraft Sunday afternoon.
Wang had made a 3-day sojourn of Nepal in
2019 September, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit China and the world, to make
preparations for the official visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping who arrived
in Kathmandu in October that year.
Xi's visit was the top-level exchange in an
interval of 23 years.
Published in The Rising Nepal dialy on 26 March 2022.
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