Nepali prime minister arrives in China on week-long visit

September 23, 2023

- Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda to meet with President Xi, hold bilateral summit with Premier Li Qiang, attend Asian Games opening ceremony

By Islamuddin Sajid

ANKARA (AA) — Nepal's prime minister arrived in eastern China on Saturday for a week-long visit to the country at the invitation of his counterpart Li Qiang.

According to a statement by China's Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda will attend the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province.

Prachanda is also expected to meet with President Xi Jinping and hold a bilateral summit with Premier Li Qiang.

He is accompanied by a high-level delegation including Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud, his daughter Ganga Dahal and other cabinet members, according to a separate statement by the Nepali Foreign Ministry.

"Nepal and China enjoy an excellent state of bilateral relations as good friends, close neighbors and trusted partners," the ministry said, adding the visit would "bolster our age-old bilateral relations and expand the areas of cooperation in various fields of mutual interest."

During his visit on Sept. 23-30, Prachanda will also pay a visit to Chongqing Municipality to observe agriculture and industrial progress in China, as well as to Lhasa, a city in the Tibet Autonomous Region of southwest China, it noted.