China calls on Nepal parties to unite for stability
BEIJING: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday he hoped all political factions in Nepal would unite and promote stability, after Nepal sent an envoy to Beijing to clear up questions over the future of bilateral agreements.
Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, 61, who led a decade-long insurgency that ended a feudal monarchy, replaced communist KP Sharma Oli this month amid uncertainty about a slew of deals made by Oli during a visit to Beijing in March.
Those deals included permission for Nepal to use Chinese railways, roads and ports to trade with third countries, and signaled a shift by the landlocked Himalayan nation away from its traditional reliance on overland trade with its southern neighbor, India.
Wang told the envoy, one of Prachanda's trusted lieutenants from the insurgency period, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, that China's friendship toward Nepal would not change even with the political shift.
"China expects that all political forces in Nepal will strengthen unity and jointly advance Nepal's peace, stability and development," Wang said.
He said China hoped "to carry out the consensus already reached by the two countries' leaders" and deepen cross-border transport, trade and energy cooperation, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
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