Kathmandu, May 13

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has expressed hope that Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit Nepal soon.

While receiving visiting Chinese Minister for State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television Cai Fuchao at his official residence in Baluwatar today, PM Oli said the Nepali people were desperate to welcome the Chinese president, according to the PM’s foreign affairs expert Gopal Khanal.

During his official visit to China in March, PM Oli had met President Xi and invited him to make an official visit to Nepal.

The Nepali leadership expects that the Chinese president would make a stopover in Nepal when he embarks on India visit to attend the BRICS Summit slated for October this year.

Meanwhile, the prime minister praised Chinese support to quake survivors and reconstruction projects and expressed confidence that the Chinese ‘one belt: one route’ policy will not only benefit China but also the neighbouring countries.

He also thanked the Chinese government for opening its first combined transport services on Thursday.

According to Khanal, PM Oli termed it a ‘positive gesture’, which was initiated within one-and-a-half months of Nepal signing a transit treaty with the northern neighbour.

An international freight train departed from Lanzhou, the capital city of north-western China’s Gansu province, for Nepal on Wednesday.

During the meeting, they also discussed exchange of news and information and mutual cooperation between the two countries.

On his part, the Chinese minister said that the meeting between PM Oli and President Xi Jinping during former’s visit to China helped further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

PM Oli during the meeting informed the Chinese minister that a high-level task force had been formed to implement the agreements signed with China, according to a statement issued by the PM’s press adviser Pramod Dahal.

The Chinese minister added that China was ready to work together with the government of Nepal for infrastructure development by imparting training and exchange of visits.