Kathmandu, December 28

Nepal and China agreed to add one more sister cities. This time, Kathmandu and Chengdu, to explore commonalities in culture, geography and to enhance people to people exchanges.

This idea was floated by Tang Lianhzhi, deputy party secretary and mayor of Chengdu City of Sichuan Province of China, when he received Nepal’s visiting Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa in Chengdu yesterday.

The mayor expressed willingness to establish Sister City relations with Kathmandu, to which DPM Thapa responded affirmatively, according to the Embassy of Nepal in Beijing.

The proposal is likely to be formally agreed during the upcoming exchange of high-level visits, an official said.

Nepal’s Pokhara City and Kunming of China have already been sister cities to promote cultural relations through connectivity, tourism, exchanges of high-level visits, research etc.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tang also expressed willingness to welcome a Consulate Mission of Nepal in Chengdu.

Saying Chengdu would like to welcome Nepal’s consulate general at the earliest, the mayor underscored the need of a cooperation mechanism in order to further engage in economic cooperation between Kathmandu and Chengdu.

Stating that similarities and close economic bond is growing between Nepal and Chengdu, he told DPM Thapa that the establishment of such a mission would help promote and boost bilateral trade, commerce and other consular activities.

Thapa assured that he would look into the requests and proposals put forward by the mayor.

Nepal already has two consulate missions in China Hong Kong and Lhasa. Nepal has decided to open up one more consulate mission in Guangzhou, but it is yet to be launched, primarily due to the Chinese side’s initial delay in allowing the same.

Now, the Chinese side has also assured it will welcome Nepal’s consulate mission in Guangzhou, but has also expressed desire to set up its Consulate General in Pokhara of Nepal, to which the Nepali side has been indecisive.

Thapa, on his part, underscored the need to ‘share the prosperity’ created by the high economic growth of Chengdu as Nepal ushers in a ‘new era of economic development’.

Thapa and Tang also shared the view that a number of areas of cooperation should be explored as Kathmandu and Chengdu are geographically closer, culturally similar, connected by regular flights and enjoy the virtue of being major tourist destinations, according to a statement issued by the Nepali Embassy in Beijing.

The deputy PM and foreign minister, who is on a six-day visit of China since December 23, was flown to Chengdu from Beijing, where he had held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

He is scheduled to return home via Lhasa of Tibet tomorrow.