KATHMANDU: Foreign affairs experts have suggested that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal should be able to use the BRICS Summit to be held in Goa of India to ensure Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit.

They said so while speculations are rife that the Chinese side had postponed or cancelled the purported visit of its leader. Neither Nepal nor China, however, have formally announced the postponement.

Speaking with journalists in Kathmandu today, former foreign secretary Madhu Raman Acharya said Dahal should talk about the purported visit while he would meet the Chinese head of the state in India.

He also urged the PM to raise voice to establish Nepal and the entire South Asian region as a connector between the BRICS member states.

He also suggested that the PM representing the current chair of SAARC should hold talks with Indian and other SAARC member states, who would attend the Summit as observers, about fixing a new date for the postponed 19th SAARC Summit.

Speaking at the same function, former Nepali Ambassador to the United States Shankar Sharma said the Prime Minister should assure the Chinese President that Nepal's foreign policy was balanced.

Claiming that BRICS Summit was a multilateral forum, foreign affairs experts Nishchal Nath Pandey said the PM should clarify why Nepal could not assure the visit of Xi Jinping while the Chinese leader already confirmed his visits to Bangladesh and Cambodia.

Meanwhile, former ambassador Hiranya Lal Shrestha said it was unfortunate that Nepal could not fix Xi's Nepal visit.