BEIJING: Nepal’s prime minister was in Beijing on Tuesday (Dec 3) to meet Chinese leaders, seeking to expand infrastructure cooperation after breaking with the long-standing tradition of new leaders making their first official visit to neighbouring India.
Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, who returned to power in July after two previous terms in the top job, arrived in Beijing to kick off the trip on Monday evening, footage on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed.
The leader of the Himalayan republic is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang during his visit, which will last until Thursday.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said last week that Xi and Oli would “have in-depth exchanges of views on deepening (Nepal and China’s) traditional friendship”.
That includes expanding cooperation under the Belt and Road project – Xi’s flagship international infrastructure initiative – and “exchanges and cooperation in various fields”, ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Pradeep Gyawali, deputy secretary of Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN (UML), told AFP the visit would centre on prior investment deals – including for the recently finished construction of an international airport in tourist hub Pokhara.
Oli has sought to walk a fine line between neighbours China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, but has favoured Beijing in an effort to cut Kathmandu’s historical reliance on New Delhi.
