Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba briefed President Ramchandra Paudel on the prime minister’s upcoming official visit to China during a meeting at Sheetal Niwas on Saturday evening.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Oli informed the President about his planned visit to the northern neighbour, according to the prime minister’s secretariat.
Prime Minister Oli is scheduled to visit China from December 2-5 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Li Qian.
The prime minister’s visit is expected to focus on the implementation of past agreements and signing some new deals under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), among other bilateral matters.
Foreign Minister Rana, who returned home on Saturday after concluding a three-day visit to China, briefed the President about her visit.
She has said China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would be enforced based on consensus among all concerned sides.
Dr Rana said it while giving a response to the media at Tribhuvan International Airport after returning home with the completion of her China visit today. She was on an official visit to China at the invitation of her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
“Nepal had signed the BRI project framework in 2017. But discussions are still going on about its enforcement modality. Therefore, the BRI will be implemented based on the agreement and understanding between Nepal and China, and among all stakeholders in Nepal,” she mentioned.
The Minister argued that Nepal is not in a condition to receive a loan at present. The discussion with the Chinese side dwelt on it. “The ruling partner Nepali Congress has already decided to enforce the BRI project in grant to which another partner UML was also made aware. Our discussions focused on grants,” Foreign Minister Dr Rana reiterated.
Nepal and China have intimate relations and the exchanges of high level visits between the two countries have strengthened the relations at people to people level. The present visit is also a part of this series.
According to her, she held talks with her Chinese counterpart on Friday relating to the imminent visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to China.
Meanwhile, the Nepali Embassy in China released a press statement, informing that Minister Dr Rana held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Minister Yi in Chengdu on Friday afternoon.
