KATHMANDU: The Nepal government has expedited the preparations for the planned visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal in mid-October.
The Chinese president is expected to visit Nepal on October 15 after completion of his five-day state visit to India.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) have jointly intensified preparations to make the visit successful.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has been in regular contact and discussion with Chinese People’s Liberation Army authorities, Nepal Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, and the National Investigation Department authorities to give a final touch to the security plan, informed a MoHA source.
The MoHA has also issued an instruction to all its staffers to be compulsorily present in the office during Xi’s visit. “Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai has already issued directives to the Home Ministry officials to not take leave until August 16,” an official at the ministry said.
The government, however, has yet to announce the specific date for the high-profile visit of Xi which is happening after a hiatus of 23 years.
China’s President Jiang Zemin had visited Nepal in 1996. Likewise, the then Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao came to Nepal in 2012.
If the Minister of Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota’s recent statement is to be considered, the government was preparing to make Xi’s visit successful.
Last week, Minister Baskota had said that the government was eagerly waiting to welcome President Xi in Nepal.
The visit of Chinese President Xi, according to government authorities, is expected to take bilateral relations to a new height.
It should be noted that Chinese President Xi had in 2013 proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to ‘further enhance the economic partnership with relevant countries’.
So far, China has signed cooperation documents with more than 160 countries and international organizations.
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