KATHMANDU: Chinese Defense Minister and State Councilor Wei Fenghe will be arriving in Nepal on Sunday (November 29).
During the visit, Fenghe will pay courtesy calls on the President and the Prime Minister, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He will also meet with Chief of Army Staff General Purna Chandra Thapa. Fenghe will leave Kathmandu in the evening of the same day.
It may be noted that Defense Minister Fenghe will be the first high-ranking Chinese official to visit Nepal since Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit in October last year.
General Wei, a former rocket force commander with the Chinese military PLA, is the first of four members of the Central Military Commission chaired by President Xi Jinping.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang will remain in Kathmandu for 12 hours.
It is learnt that he will land in Kathmandu for a short time and hold meetings with the dignitaries in Nepal in the course of visiting other countries.
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi has intensified her political meetings at a time when the ruling NCP is on the brink of collapse. China’s Foreign Minister Wang is visiting Nepal at the backdrop of this political scenario of the country.
Wang’s upcoming Nepal visit is, hence, viewed significant amid public voices being raised against international intervention in the internal politics of the country.
His visit coincides with the intra-party dispute in the ruling NCP and the efforts of the Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi to keep the party intact.
There have been instances of Ambassador Yanqi’s hectic meetings with top NCP leaders as the intra-party row takes a new height.
Foreign affairs experts have speculated that northern neighbor China is engaged in micro-management of the political affairs of Nepal, of late.
Earlier, Wang had visited Nepal on September 8-9 in 2019 at the invitation of his Nepali counterpart Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali.
That is not all. Minister for Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi, too, is visiting Nepal in the last week of November, Nepali officials have said.
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