Chinese Foreign Minister Yi arrives in Kathmandu on a three-day visit

KATHMANDU: Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi arrived in Kathmandu today on a three-day visit to Nepal.

Yi is visiting Nepal as part of the preparation for what has been said as ‘sojourn visit’ of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal in October.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yi is here at the invitation of Nepal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali.

During his stay in Kathmandu, Chinese Foreign Minister Yi is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Gyawali. He will also pay a courtesy call on President Bidhya Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Oli.

Chinese Minister Yi will pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Oli at the PM’s official residence in Baluwatar on Monday at 5 pm.

Likewise, he is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on President Bhandari at 6 pm on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, the Chinese minister will meet with Nepal Communist Party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The same day, he will meet with Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba at 11 am.

He is scheduled to return home on Tuesday afternoon.

The Chinese Foreign Minister landed in Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) after attending a Pakistan-Afghanistan-China trilateral meeting in Pakistan. He was received by Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Shanker Bairagi at the TIA.

According to MOFA sources, talks between Yi and Gyawali to be held at Hotel Yak and Yeti on Monday afternoon would basically focus on the implementation of past agreements, including the projects under the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

However, sources have claimed that Yi’s visit takes place in the run-up to Chinese President Xi’s visit to Nepal somewhere in mid-October on his way back home from his India visit.

According to Indian media reports, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host President Jinping in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s Mamallapuram on October 11-13 as part of the second India-China informal summit between Modi and Xi.

The two leaders had met in Wuhan of China on April 27-28 in 2018 in their first informal summit.