KATHMANDU, MAY 21

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli addressed the 26th International Conference on the Future of Asia virtually this morning.

The theme of this year's conference is 'Shaping the Post-COVID Era: Asia's Role in the Global Recovery'.

The PM, in his address, highlighted Asia's civilisational history and its gradual resurgence in shaping the global agenda.

Mentioning the importance of the time-tested Asian values of fraternity, peaceful co-existence and sense of equity and justice, he stressed the need to have stronger solidarity, cooperation and partnership to cope with unprecedented difficulties unleashed by the COV- ID-19 pandemic. He also called upon the 'whole of the region' and 'whole of the world' approach to overcome the health crisis many countries have been facing and to rebuild their economies.

On the occasion, PM Oli emphasised on fair and equitable distribution of COVID vaccines.

Talking about the importance of global recovery, he highlighted the need to build back better, greener and together, ensuring no country and society is left behind. PM Oli also called upon the international community to establish a COVID-19 response fund to help recover the economies of the countries severely affected by the pandemic.

During the question and answer session, following his address, the prime minister highlighted some important features of Nepal's foreign policy as well as its long standing relations and cooperation with India and China. Also on the occasion, he stressed the need of political stability and cooperation among political parties in order to tackle with COVID-19 and ensure economic growth so as to deliver on the national aspiration of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali'.

Heads of the states and the governments, ministers and the representatives from regional organisations in Asia attended the two-day conference organised by Nikkei Inc. A version of this article appears in the print on May 22, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.