Chinese President Xi Jinping is willing to visit Nepal and the date for the same will be finalised at the top leadership level soon, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara on Saturday upon his return from his official visit to China.

DPM Mahara, who was in Beijing as a special envoy of Prime Minster Pushpa Kamal Dahal, returned home on Saturday after completing his five-day visit to the northern neighbour.

“Chinese Premier Li Keqiang informed us about President Xi’s willingness to visit Nepal,” Mahara told reporters at the Tribhuvan International Airport. DPM Mahara had extended an invitation, on behalf of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, to Xi to visit Nepal through Premier Li. “Premier Li said the foreign ministries of both the countries would stay in touch for the necessary coordination and preparations for President Xi’s visit,” he added.

Stating that Chinese Premier Li and Foreign Minister Wang Yi were for exploring new possibilities of support while giving continuity to the projects that were signed between the two countries earlier, Mahara said, “China also wants to increase the assistance being provided to Nepal, and the authorities there expressed their keenness to extend more support for post-quake reconstruction in Nepal.”

Mahara, who is also the general secretary of the CPN (Maoist Centre), said he also had cordial meetings with Song Tao and Zheng Xiaosong, minister and vice minister respectively of the International Department of the Communist Party of China.

Later, while briefing his party’s headquarters meeting about his visit, Mahara said Beijing was for peace and stability in Nepal and that it was of the view that the change in government won’t affect its policy towards Nepal.