Wen Jiabao to visit Nepal next month

Friday, November 18, 2011

By Utpal Parashar | Hindustan Times

Chinese Premier Wen Jiaboa to visit Nepal in December. (AP/File)

KATHMANDU, Nepal-- After a flurry of high-level visits, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao will visit Nepal next month. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also likely to visit the country in March next year.

According to officials in Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s office, Wen will arrive in Kathmandu on 20 December on a three-day trip. It will be followed by Bhattarai’s visit to Beijing.

Deputy Prime Minister and foreign minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha is scheduled to visit China between 24-29 November to extend a formal invitation to Wen for his trip.

“The schedule of the Chinese premier’s visit is yet to be finalised. The foreign ministry is preparing a detailed plan for Wen’s trip in consultation with Chinese officials,” said the senior bureaucrat.

Both countries are likely to sign deals regarding development of hydro-power projects, road construction as well as financial assistance on security and border management.

It is expected that China’s concerns regarding entry of Tibetans to Nepal will also figure during the deliberations. In recent years China has been pressuring Nepal to put a lid on anti-China activities by Tibetan refugees.

Inder Kumar Gujral was last Indian PM to have undertaken an official visit to Nepal in June 1997.

During Bhattarai’s recent India trip he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and recently reiterated it during a meeting in Maldives on sidelines of the SAARC summit.

Singh has reacted affirmatively to the invitation. Although no date has been fixed, it is expected that he could be here in March next year.