Kathmandu, February 15

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is leaving India on a six-day visit on Friday, will also visit China next month.

Addressing a conference of Asian political parties in the Capital today, PM Oli himself announced that he would visit the northern neighbour in March.

“Within one month, I am also visiting China,” PM Oli said while inaugurating the seminar of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties.

The PM said his visits to India and China would focus on garnering support for Nepal’s newly adopted constitution and economic development.

He said he would be visiting India with an objective to strengthen the bilateral ties, which according to him, were “improving gradually” after five months of tumultuous relationship following the promulgation of the constitution in September.

The prime minister didn’t disclose the exact date of his China visit. However, officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were instructed to prepare the ground for his visit, most likely in the third week of March.

Prime minister’s foreign affairs expert Gopal Khanal told The Himalayan Times that chances were quite high that the PM would participate in the annual Boao Forum of Asia Conference, which is slated for March 22-25, in Boao, Hainan province of China.

The prime minister is likely to first visit Beijing and join the Boao conference from there.

A foreign ministry official told THT that the preparatory work had already been kicked off for PM’s visit to China, as the ministry was coordinating with other ministries to finalise its agenda.

Last year, former president Ram Baran Yadav had attended the Boao conference and had met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on its sidelines.