Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of Brics Summit in Goa, India, following criticism at home of ignoring relations with China and botching a visIt to Nepal by Xi.
“The (Chinese) president expressed readiness to visit Nepal at the earliest convenient date,” Nepal’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a twitter statement right after the 40-minute-long meeting between the two top officials.
“They talked about promoting cooperation for development including infrastructure, connectivity, trade and transit,” the tweet said.
Xi was widely expected to visit Nepal along with Cambodia and Bangladesh en route to the Brics Summit, but he decided to bypass Nepal, citing inadequate preparation, according to Nepali officials.
Chinese President Xi said that his country is ready to align development strategies with Nepal and hopes to build the two neighbours into a community of shared destiny.
“China and Nepal are close neighbours linked by mountains and rivers,” Xi said in a meeting with Nepali Prime Minister Dahal.
Since the two countries established diplomatic ties more than half a century ago, China-Nepal relations have withstood the vicissitude of the international situation and maintained sound and stable development, Xi said.
China, he added, attaches great importance to developing relations with Nepal and is willing to work with Nepal to deepen practical co-operation.
He called on the two countries to strengthen high-level contacts and political communication, and enhance mutual support on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns.
He also called for concerted efforts to carry out the consensuses the two sides have reached on beefing up cooperation on connectivity, free trade and energy and continue to push forward co-operation in their pursuit of
development.
China is ready to support Nepal in its post-earthquake reconstruction, especially in restoring infrastructure, people’s well-being and historical relics, he said.
China, he added, encourages its reputable businesses to invest in Nepal and take part in the construction of special economic zones and industrial parks in Nepal.
He also urged the two sides to strengthen co-operation in agricultural industrialisation, water conservation, irrigation and hydropower generation.
On people-to-people exchanges, the Chinese president said the two sides should increase exchanges and cooperation in such areas as tourism, education, culture, youth, media and local affairs.
Since coming into office three months ago, the Dahal-led government has put more emphasis on improving relations with India, which had soured following a border blockade of Nepal by New Delhi over internal Nepalese ethnic strife that threatened to cross the border.
Nepal faced critical shortages of emergency supplies including fuel and medicine for four months last year as India refused to allow cargo movement into Nepal.
In response, the previous government led by KP Sharma Oli signed a trade and transit accord with China in March of this year to decrease Nepal’s dependence on India.
Beijing has also shown interest in building road and railway networks to connect the two countries.
Though China wants to see an early implementation of this accord, it remains wary of political instability inside Nepal and India’s outsized influence among major political players.