Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali held talks with Austrian Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, Karin Kneissl at the latter’s office on Monday.

The two discussed a range of matters on Nepal-Austria relations during the meeting. the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The two foreign ministers reviewed the status of bilateral cooperation and deliberated on the ways to enhancing such cooperation in areas of trade, investment, tourism, heritage conservation, water management as well as people-to-people contacts,” it read. “They agreed on the need to intensify bilateral contacts as the two countries would observe the next year as the 60th year of the establishment of bilateral relations.”

During the meeting, Gyawali shared with his Austrian counterpart the major development priorities of the Government of Nepal and expressed hope that the economic linkages between Nepal and Austria would expand further in the future. Kneissl highlighted the Austrian government’s foreign policy priorities with regards to Asia and stated that Austria would continue to support Nepal’s development efforts. The two leaders also expressed satisfaction over the existing cooperation between the two countries in multilateral forums and agreed to continue working closely in the issues of mutual interest, the statement added.

Also present in the meeting were Nepali Ambassador to Austria Prakash Kumar Subedi, Joint Secretary and Head of Europe-America Division at the Foreign Ministry Ghanshyam Bhandari, and Second Secretary at Embassy of Nepal in Vienna.