Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that his visit to China is important in furthering the bilateral ties with the northern neighbor. 

The PM left for China on Thursday evening to attend the 2017 Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia. Dahal will address the opening session of the forum on the theme ‘Globalization and Free Trade: Asian Perspectives’ at Boao in Hainan Province on March 25. After attending the opening session of the forum, he will depart for Beijing. 

Before his embarking on the China visit, the PM consulted with former prime ministers and China experts at Baluwatar regarding the topics of mutual interests that should be raised during his meetings with top Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping.

The PM said that the visit would be focused mainly on strengthening the bilateral ties, building mutual trust with the Chinese leadership to clear any misgivings about the relations. 

After the meeting, Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat said the former prime ministers, China experts and businesspersons have been briefed about PM Dahal’s China visit. Nepal’s preparations on ways to expand the scope of cooperation between the two countries have been completed, Mahat said, quickly adding that there would be no agreements at present due to technical reasons. 

“Discussions were held on connectivity between the two countries—Kodari Road, Syaphrubesi Road and One Belt One Road, among other topics during the consultation meeting,” Mahat said. 

Former PM Jhalanath Khanal said that they suggested PM Dahal to focus all his attention on enhancing goodwill between the two countries. “There are immense possibilities of development and cooperation. We are confident that your visit will be successful in warming the ties between the two countries that seemed to have soured to some extent of late,” Khanal said. Former prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba and Madhav Kumar Nepal were also present at the meeting. 

Former foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey informed journalists that they suggested PM Dahal to promote goodwill as “Nepal’s relations with China and India at present has waned”.