Nepal Foreign Affairs (KATHMANDU, 13 March 2017) – Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is scheduled to leave for China on March 23 to attend in the Boao forum for Asia-2017.
China holds this conference annually in Boao of Hinan Province, where heads of the governments of Asia are invited as special guests to share and exchange their ideas in economy, environment and development.
This will be the first China visit of Prime Minister Dahal, who took the charge of the premiership on 3 august 2016 replacing KP Sharma Oli. Oli was ousted by the alliance of Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoists Centre with the tacit support of India.
In the light of not being implemented the previous agreements made by Prime Minister Oli, this visit has been considered significant to take forward Nepal-China relations.
According to sources at Baluwatar, Prime Minister Dahal has clearly given a signal that meeting with President Xi Jinping should be arranged in Beijing after the Boao address. Maoist leader and Chief of Foreign Affairs Department Narayan Kaji Shrestha has confirmed that Prime Minister will attend Boao forum in the stipulated time and will also hold bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
But sources of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) have said that they are not informed on the visit. ”I am a concerned official of such high level visit but I am completely unaware about the Prime Minister’s China visit” he told. Prime Minister Dahal will sign various agreements on railway, road and connectivity in Beijing, the sources have said,”.
Prime Minister will also sign the Memorandum of Understanding on OBOR that has been a long due after the proposal put forth by Chinese government 6 months before.
”Preparations are being made for signing some agreements. The earlier agreements signed between Nepal and China on transit, trade, rail and connectivity will be reiterated for implementation”. the source said. The four-day Conference themed ”Globalization & Free Trade: The Asian Perspectives”, is slated to be held from March 23 to 26. Boao Forum for Asia has won great support from Asian Countries and drawn extensive attention for the whole world. It has become a high-end platform for dialogues among leaders of Asia.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi is leaving for New Dlehi tomorrow (14 March 2017) to take part in ”Anti-Terrorism Conference-2017 being held in New Delhi”. The three-day international conference organized by BJP’s think tank India Foundation and Indian Home Ministry would be attended by senior leaders and officials of world.
Former Prime Minister and Convenor of Naya Shakti Nepal Baburam Bhattari is also a major speaker in plenary session where he will have a presentation in the tilted ”Bullet to Ballet”.