Whole country stands united to make Chinese President’s visit historic: Minister Banskota

Kathmandu, Oct 10: Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Banskota has pledged that the government would leave no stone unturned to make the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal fruitful and take cooperation and friendship between the two countries to a new height.

At a press conference organized in Singha Durbar today to make public the decisions of Council of Ministers’ meeting convened on October 4, Minister Banskota shared that the talks between the high-ranking officials of the two countries were moving ahead in a positive regarding the agendas of the visit.

Stating that all preparation was completed to welcome Chinese President Xi who is arriving Nepal for two-day state visit on October 12 at the invitation of President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Minister Banskota informed that high caution was maintained and high security mechanism was put in place to make the China’s Head of the State’s visit to Nepal historic and meaningful.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today held discussions with former Prime Ministers, former Ministers for Foreign Affairs and foreign affairs experts in connection with the Chinese President’s imminent state visit to Nepal.

PM Oli also called for cooperation from all quarters to make the Chinese President’s visit to Nepal a historic one, according to Minister Banskota.
Informing that all preparations have been over for Chinese President Xi’s visit to Nepal in the gap of 23 years which the government of Nepal and the people have vowed to make a grand success, Minister Baskota said bilateral talks for the mutual welfare of both the countries would be held during Xi’s visit. Likewise, mutual talks were underway between officials of both the countries on the issues being raised by Nepal for long and on all subjects of both the countries, he said.

The subjects to be discussed during the talks include railway, road, optical fiber, electrical transmission line, various aspects of Trans Himalayan multidimensional connective network, he said expressing the hope that the dialogues would help increase trade relations between citizens of both the countries and increase production.

Likewise, other issues to be discussed are upgradation of the Araniko Highway linking with Nepal-China border, Rasuwagadhi-Chhahare-Kathmandu tunnel and railway, trans-border electricity transmission, border management, Kimathanka and Korala transit points, Hilsa Road and North South corridor, he said.

“Today’s China has risen as a giant power of the world and is also our good neighbour. Nepal is in a situation from where 3 billion population of the world could be connected. In this context, we are ready to put forward the concept of connectivity. This could be utilised as common property to additionally facilitate relations between the two countries and have easy access to all human development activities,” he said.

“The distance between Kerung-Kathmandu Railway is 78 kilometers. Its detail project report should be prepared from where all aspects of the project like tunnel and bridges would be determined. In relation to debt for the project, factors like capacity of Nepal and China, Nepal’s approach and China’s goodwill will determine.”

He further shared that during the visit, President Xi will meet with President Bidya Devi  Bhandari and hold delegation level official talks with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. President Bhandari will host a banquet in honor of President Xi and the high-level Chinese delegation.

Following the talks between PM Oli and President Xi, both the leaders will witness the signing of bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding, he said.  Minister Banskota added that the preparations were underway to make the visit historic and meaningful. He opined that Nepal could be benefited from the miraculous economic and infrastructure development of china, as a rising super power in global arena.

He argued that the age-old ties between both countries were further harmonized. China’s support even in the disaster hit period was also notable, he said.