• There’s no specific agenda for the visit, it’s officially a goodwill visit

Kathmandu, Septsember 4

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara will fly to Beijing on Wednesday on a six-day official visit at the invitation of China’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi.

Mahara will head a delegation, including Nepal’s Ambassador to China Leela Mani Paudyal and senior officials of both the foreign ministry and the Nepali embassy.

According to a highly-placed source at the foreign ministry, ‘there’s no specific agenda’ for the DPM’s China trip, and the visit is purely an ‘official goodwill visit’. During his stay in China, DPM Mahara will hold delegation-level talks with his Chinese counterpart Minister Wang and meet other senior Chinese leaders, where the Nepali side will reiterate Nepal’s longstanding support to core Chinese interests. Both the sides will also reaffirm their commitments to implementation of agreements reached between the two countries in the past, the ministry source said.

Although there are no plans to sign agreements   during DPM Mahara’s stay in China, preparations are being made for signing of a memorandum of understanding on energy to establish a dialogue mechanism between Nepal’s Ministry of Energy and National Energy Administration of China, according to the source. “However, nothing has been fixed yet,” the source stated, adding that the protocol of the Nepal-China Transit and Transport Agreement might also feature in talks between the two sides.

After attending a luncheon hosted by Minister Wang in his honour and a talk programme at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, DPM Mahara will fly to Guangzhou to inaugurate the newly-established office of the Consulate General of Nepal on September 10, according to a statement issued by the foreign ministry today.

In Guangzhou, Mahara will address the business community and meet provincial leaders. He will also visit the Hebei province, and meet provincial leaders.