Foreign Minister Khadka leaves for China on a three-day visit

Kathmandu, Aug. 9

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Narayan Khadka, left for a 3-day visit to China on Tuesday.  

His entourage is happening for the first time at the invitation of Wang Yi, State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Minister for Foreign Affairs (MoFA) informed in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the MoFA, the two ministers will hold delegation-level bilateral talks, leading their respective delegations on August 10, 2022 in Qingdao, China.

Minister Wang will host Dr. Khadka and his South Korean counterpart Park Jin on the same day.

The high-level visit from Nepal to the northern neighbour is happening for the first time since the formation of the present government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba more than a year ago. It coincides with the escalating tensions between the United States of America and China because of the visit of the US House Speaker Nanci Pelosi to Taiwan this month.  

While making an announcement about this visit of the Foreign Minister Dr. Khadka, the MoFA reiterated Nepal's adherence to 'One China Policy' which considers Taiwan as the part of China. Nepal's government and political leaders have time and again assured China of this policy.

This is the first foreign minister level visit from Nepal to China after Nepal accepted the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)'s Nepal Compact Project and rejected the State Partnership Programme (SPP). Both of the them were the US funded projects where the first is an infrastructure development programme which has been endorsed by the country while the latter is rejected by the government.

The MoFA has maintained that the visit is expected to further strengthen the mutual trust between the two good neighbours and partners in development.

Earlier, in March this year, Minister Wang had paid a three-day visit to Nepal and met President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and leader of the parties in ruling coalition and opposition.

During his visit, Nepal and China had signed a nine-point agreement including the projects such as conducting the feasibility study of cross-border power grid connection, agreement for economic and technical cooperation for the feasibility study of inter-country railway project, maintenance of Arniko Highway (third phase), and cooperation in the railway sector. They have also agreed on facilitating Nepali products to China and vaccine support.

Nepal has signed the Belt and Road Initiative – a dream project of Chinese President Xi Jinping that aims to build regional infrastructure along the ancient Silk Route to boost trade and development. Nepal wants some large infrastructure projects such as trans-Himalayan railway project, Kathmandu-Lumbini Railway and other facilities.

Meanwhile, Nepal also desperately wants China opening and fully operationalising its border with Nepal. While imports from China are ever growing, exports have been continuously diminishing since the advent of COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019.

In the last Fiscal Year 2021/22, Nepal imported goods worth Rs. 264.78 billion but the exports were of only Rs. 800 million. Not only the importers but also the manufacturers that mostly use raw materials from China have been suffering for the past three years. They want the government to talk to China on this matter and facilitate the bilateral trade, especially exports.  

Published in The Rising Nepal dain 10 August 2022.