Kathmandu, December 28

Minister for Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat today said the government attached high priority to its relations with China.

Refuting recent media reports that the incumbent government was compromising on its ties with the northern neighbour, Mahat made it clear that the timing of the visits of senior Chinese leader Liu Qibao and Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil was just a coincidence.

Liu a politburo member of Communist Party of China and Tsend both visited Nepal early last week.

A section of Nepali media had questioned the government’s intent behind inviting senior leaders of China and Mongolia at the same time, despite knowing the fact that the relationship between these two countries was currently not so cordial.

Recently, China had imposed an economic blockade against Mongolia after exiled Tibetan leader Dalai Lama visited Mongolia.

Minister Mahat said the visit of Mongolian foreign minister was fixed much earlier than that of Chinese leader Liu.

According to Mahat, implementation of agreements and understanding reached between Nepal and China during earlier high-level visits couldn’t take place overnight.“We have agreed upon many things in principle. However, we have to follow certain procedures for their implementation,” he said.

He said the Chinese side was postive towards Nepal’s requests to open and improve other cross-border routes and linkages.

The foreign minister stressed that the government was giving due priority to its relations with India.

Nepal-UK ties highlighted

KATHMANDU: Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat on Wednesday said Nepal and Britain knew their limit of strategic capability when the two sides sat together and inked a Treaty of Sugauli in March 1816.

Addressing a seminar on the Bicentenary Anniversary of the Nepal-the UK diplomatic relations in Kathmandu, Mahat said the Treaty was the turning point for Nepal’s emergence an independent and sovereign nation.

Presenting a paper, former Nepali ambassador to the UK, Suresh Chalise, said Nepal and UK could enhance cooperation in areas of cyber security, energy security, investment and environment conservation in Nepal.