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Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka is preparing to visit China at the invitation of his Chinese counterparty Wang Yi.

According to diplomatic sources, preparations are underway for Wang’s China visit. During his Nepal visit in March, Wang extended an invitation to Khadka to visit China. 

The 14^th meeting of the Nepal-China Diplomatic Consultation Mechanism was held virtually on May 15. Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China His Wu Jianghao led their respective delegations to the meeting.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two sides took stock of Nepal-China relations and exchanged views on further promoting bilateral relations and cooperation for mutual benefit.

During the meeting, the two sides underscored the importance of the exchange of high-level visits and stressed the need for timely implementation of the agreements and understandings reached between the two countries, reads the statement.

Both sides agreed to promote cooperation in various sectors including trade, transit, connectivity, investment, health, tourism, poverty alleviation, disaster management, education, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, among others.

Foreign Secretary Paudyal thanked the Chinese Government for the generous support of life-saving vaccines and medical supplies to Nepal during the difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assistant Minister Wu assured the Foreign Secretary of China’s support for the improvement of health infrastructures as well as for the capacity building of medical personnel of Nepal.

The two sides also agreed to activate bilateral mechanisms to enhance cooperation and partnership in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also emphasized the need for timely completion of China-assisted projects, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 Paudyal thanked the Chinese side for their decision to resume the regular passenger flights between the two countries in Kathmandu-Kunming and Kathmandu-Chengdu sectors. He also thanked the Chinese side for the preparation of the return of Nepali students to China and requested to facilitate the return of Nepali business people and their families to China.

Both sides underlined the need to enhance the level of support for improving the livelihood of people residing in bordering districts in the Northern Himalayan region of Nepal.

They also exchanged views on continuing cooperation in various regional and multilateral forums on matters of mutual interests.

Ministry of Foreign of Foreign Affairs has celebrated the first foreign service day. To mark the day, Ministry organized a special function in the presence of Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Khadka and Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal.

On the occasion, Khadka and Poudyal jointly felicitated nine senior foreign ministry officials who served in different capacities at Ministry before 1961. Informing about the context and background of the foreign service day, Paudyal said Ministry plans to mark the day every year.  To mark the day, Ministry has invited current and retired senior officials and diplomats. 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs has extended warm greetings of the Foreign Service Day to all the serving and retired foreign service officials of Nepal as well as all those who are associated with this service and for its strengthening.

The institution of Nepal’s Foreign Office is one of the oldest of its type in Asia. After the unification of Nepal by King Prithivi Narayan Shah, in 1769, an office called Jaishi Kotha was established to look after foreign affairs, especially the relation with Tibet and China.

That was the first institution dedicated to foreign affairs in Nepal. The name of Jaishi Kotha was changed to “Munshi Khana” during the premiership of Bhimsen Thapa, and Jaishi Kotha was retained as a unit of Munshi Khana.

Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to organize Prof. Yadhu Nath Khanal lecture series in the honor of Khanal’s contribution to foreign policy, diplomacy, and national interests. The first series of lectures will take place on June 7 this year and will be focused on the issue of foreign policy and national issues. In the first episode, Dr. Surya Subedi will deliver a lecture on ‘Foreign policy of Nepal: Past, Present, and future.’