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Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Saturday that China will stick to its friendly policy toward Nepal and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with the South Asian country, Xinhua reported.

At a meeting with Nepali Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka, Wang said no matter how the international scene and domestic situation of the two countries change, China will strive to promote the building of a China-Nepal community with shared future along the direction set by the leaders of the two countries.

Wang elaborated China's support for Nepal in three aspects.

First, China will support Nepal in finding a development path suited to its national conditions. China's friendly policy is open to all parties and party factions, and the people of Nepal, Wang said.

China encourages all parties and party factions in Nepal to engage in inclusive consultation and cooperate with each other for the sake of the fundamental and long-term interests of the people, and jointly explore a governance model that is conducive to promoting political stability, economic growth and people's livelihood, Wang said. according to Xinhua.

Second, China supports Nepal in pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies. China always believes that all countries are equal regardless of size, and respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries, he said.

China believes that the affairs of Nepal should be decided by its people, he said, noting that China opposes any attempt to undermine Nepal's sovereignty and independence, interfere in its internal affairs and engage in geopolitical games in Nepal.

Nepal should become a promising land for cooperation between China and South Asia, and China is glad to see Nepal co-exist friendly with other countries and play a bigger role in regional and international affairs, Wang said.

Third, China supports Nepal in furthering participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, Xinhua reported.

China and Nepal have made encouraging progress in jointly building the Belt and Road, which has significantly boosted Nepal's national construction, Wang said.

The Chinese side is willing to push forward the key cooperation projects between the two sides, ensure the smooth running of land ports between the two countries, explore cross-border cooperation in electricity, expand economic and people-to-people exchange channels, and build the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network to make the Himalayas a bond of friendly cooperation between the two countries, Wang said.

China is ready to assist Nepal in taking advantage of its own human resources, geographical location and national ecosystem as well as the opportunities brought by China's development to speed up its development and revitalization.

Khadka said that the two countries are good friends which share a traditional friendship, and also good partners in terms of promoting development cooperation, according to Xinhua.

Khadka said that Nepal thanked China's support for Nepal's efforts to safeguard sovereignty and independence as well as oppose external interference, reaffirming that Nepal firmly adheres to the one-China policy, and firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests.

They agreed that the two countries should strengthen cooperation in terms of anti-pandemic drive and vaccines.

Both sides agreed that the Sino-Nepali cross-border railway project, planned by leaders of both countries and welcomed by the two peoples, should be completed, stretching the railway to Kathmandu.

Following the meeting, the two foreign ministers attended a signing ceremony of cooperation documents concerning technology, agriculture, infrastructure and public health, Xinhua reported.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that Nepal firmly adheres to the One-China policy and will never allow any forces to use the Nepali territory to engage in any anti-China activities.

According to Chinese state media Xinhua, PM Deuba, in the meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made it clear that it will never allow any forces to use the Nepali territory to engage in any anti-China activities. Deuba stressed that Nepal will continue to firmly adhere to the One-China policy and will never allow any forces to use the Nepali territory to engage in any anti-China activities, Xinhua reported. 

Deuba congratulated China on the success of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and thanked China for providing strong support for Nepal's economic and social development over the years, according to the report.

China will work with Nepal to safeguard the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and the basic norms governing international relations, resist unilateralism and oppose power politics, and contribute to regional peace and stability, Wang said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told Nepal to pursue independent domestic and foreign policies.

He made such a remark in a meeting with Nepali counterpart Narayan Khadka on March 26. 
According to media reports carried out by Chinese government-affiliated media, Wang stressed that China will unswervingly implement friendly policies toward Nepal.

While deepening mutually beneficial cooperation, no matter how the international and domestic situations of the two countries change, according to Chinese media. 

The Chinese diplomat also voiced support for Nepal to pursue independent domestic and foreign policies.
China always believes that all countries are equal regardless of size, and respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries, Chinese government-affiliated media, CGTN has reported. 

Nepal and China have agreed to carry out a joint inspection of the Nepal-China boundary through mutual consultation.

Two sides reached such an understanding in the meeting between Nepalese Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on March 26. 

“Underlining the importance of continuously maintaining the Nepal-China border peaceful and tranquil in the spirit of the Boundary treaty, the two Foreign Ministers agreed to carry out joint inspection of Nepal-China boundary through mutual consultation,” the statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal says.

Earlier, a team dispatched by Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs came up with a report that there are border borders between two countries mainly in the Humla section.

Two major Sri Lankan newspapers are suspending their print editions because of a lack of paper, their owner said, the latest casualties in the island nation’s economic crisis, Aljazeera reported.

The South Asian nation of 22 million people is facing its worst economic meltdown since independence from Britain in 1948 after its foreign reserves hit rock bottom.

Privately owned Upali Newspapers on Friday said their English-language daily, The Island, and its sister Sinhalese version, Divaina, will only be available online “in view of the prevailing newsprint shortage”.

Other main national dailies have also reduced pages after costs soared by more than a third in the past five months and because of difficulties securing supplies from abroad.

School tests for nearly three million of Sri Lanka’s 4.5 million pupils were postponed indefinitely last week after the authorities failed to source enough paper and ink, according to Aljazeera.

The dollar shortage has caused energy shortages affecting all sectors and led to skyrocketing prices with inflation at a record 17.5 percent in February, the fifth consecutive monthly high.

Motorists have to queue at gasoline pumps and at least four people have died in the past week while waiting long hours to top up.

Energy ministry officials said they managed to raise $42m by Friday to pay for a cargo of diesel and aviation fuel, held up at the Colombo port for nearly two weeks because there were no dollars to pay for it.

Earlier this month, the government allowed the rupee to depreciate and announced it will seek an IMF bailout to restructure its foreign debt, Aljazeera reported.

Sri Lanka needs nearly $7bn to service its external debt this year while the country’s foreign reserves have hit $2.3bn, down from $7.5bn when the current government came to power in November 2019.

The island is also seeking more loans from India, China and other countries to overcome its currency crisis.

Sri Lanka was in a deep economic crisis when the pandemic hit, reducing foreign worker remittances and crippling the lucrative tourism sector, a key source of dollars for the economy, according to Aljazeera.

About 300 people were killed by the Russian airstrike last week that blasted open a Mariupol theater that was being used as a shelter, Ukrainian authorities said, marking what could be the war’s deadliest known attack on civilians yet, Associated Press reported.

The death toll announced Friday fueled allegations that Moscow is committing war crimes by killing civilians, whether deliberately or by indiscriminate fire.

Russia, meanwhile, seemed to signal an important shift in its war objectives. US officials said Russian forces appear to have halted, at least for now, their ground offensive aimed at capturing the capital, Kyiv, and are concentrating more on gaining control of the Donbas region in the country’s southeast — a shift the Kremlin seemed to confirm.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again appealed to Russia to negotiate an end to the war, but pointedly said he would not give up any Ukrainian territory for the sake of peace, according to the Associated Press.

“The territorial integrity of Ukraine should be guaranteed,” he said in a nightly video address to the nation. “That is, the conditions must be fair, for the Ukrainian people will not accept them otherwise.”

For days, the Mariupol government was unable to give a casualty count for the March 16 bombardment of the grand, columned Mariupol Drama Theater, where hundreds of people were said to be taking cover. In an attempt to ward off such an attack, the word “CHILDREN” was printed in Russian in huge white letters on the ground outside.

The city government cited eyewitnesses when it announced the death toll on its Telegram channel. But it was not immediately clear how witnesses arrived at the figure or whether emergency workers had finished excavating the ruins.

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the theater bombing was an “absolute shock, particularly given the fact that it was so clearly a civilian target.” He said it showed “a brazen disregard for the lives of innocent people” in the besieged port city, Associated Press reported.

The Ukrainian Parliament’s human rights commissioner said soon after the attack that more than 1,300 people had taken shelter in the theater, many of them because their homes were destroyed. The building had a basement bomb shelter, and some survivors did emerge from the rubble after the attack.

“This is a barbaric war, and according to international conventions, deliberate attacks on civilians are war crimes,” said Mircea Geoana, NATO’s deputy-secretary general.

He said Putin’s efforts to break Ukraine’s will to resist are having the opposite effect: “What he’s getting in response is an even more determined Ukrainian army and an ever more united West in supporting Ukraine.”

Ukrainian officials continued to push for more military support. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, on Friday called for a lend-lease program, referring to US policy of heavily supplying its World War II allies.

Ukraine needs real-time military intelligence and heavy weapons, Yermak said in an address.

While the Russians continue to pound the capital from the air, they appear to have gone into a “defensive crouch” outside Kyiv and are focused more on the Donbas, a senior US defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment, according to the Associated Press.

“They don’t show any signs of being willing to move on Kyiv from the ground,” the official said.

A man died after a bus hit a bike in Bhaktapur on Friday.

The deceased has been identified as Ramesh Timilsina (36) of Sudan, Changunarayan Municipality-8.

The incident occurred when the bus (Ba 4 Kha 2001) heading towards Sallaghari from Radhe Radhe hit the bike (3-02-006 Pa 6114) yesterday, police said.

Critically injured in the incident, Timilsina breathed his last during the course of treatment, the Metropolitan Police Range, Bhaktapur said.

Police said that they are searching for the bus driver who fled the scene after the incident.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has proposed ‘China-India Plus cooperation in South Asia to forge a cooperation-based model with healthy interaction, so as to achieve mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation at a higher level and in a wider range’. 

He made such proposal in the meeting with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. According to China’s official media, the top Chinese diplomat stressed that the two countries should take part in the multilateral process with a cooperative posture. Since 2017, China is proposing two-plus one cooperation in South Asian countries including in Nepal. China is proposing to initiate the implementation of such proposal from Nepal.  India, however, has not accepted it. 

He said that when China and India speak with one voice, the whole world will listen, and if the two countries join hands, the whole world will pay attention.