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Finnish Ambassador to Nepal Riina-Riikka Heikka paid a courtesy call on Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens Bhagwati Chaudhary on Thursday.

During the meeting held at Minister Chaudhary’s office in Singh Durbar this afternoon, they discussed strengthening the relations between the two countries, cooperation on women, children, senior citizens and gender and sexual minorities among other issues.

On this occasion, Minister Chaudhary said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations on September 21, 1974, the relationship between the two countries has been harmonious, stating that Nepal attaches great importance to the relations based on friendship, amity and cooperation with Finland.

Minister Chaudhary expressed the belief that Finland's support will be fruitful for Nepal in the efforts to uplift the socio-economic status, especially the rural communities of Nepal, and thanked the Finnish government and people for extending their helping hands to Nepal during the difficult time of Covid-19.

Mentioning that Nepal is aiming to upgrade from underdeveloped country status in 2026 and become a middle-income country by 2030, Minister Chaudhary said that Nepal is striving to achieve the goals of sustainable development.

"I would like to thank Finland for advocating climate change together with Nepal in various multilateral forums," she said.

In the meeting, Ambassador Heikka said that to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Nepal and Finland, they will cooperate for bilateral development, according to the Secretariat of Minister Chaudhary.

National Assembly Vice-Chairperson Urmila Aryal resigned on Thursday.

She submitted the resignation to National Assembly Chairman Narayan Prasad Dahal.

Aryal was elected unopposed as the National Assembly Vice-Chairperson on January 17, 2023.

After Dahal was elected as the Chairman from the CPN (Maoist Center) in the ruling coalition, she tendered her resignation in consensus.

While forming a new coalition, an agreement was reached among the four parties that the Chairman of the National Assembly would be from the Maoist Center and the Vice-Chairperson of the CPN-UML.

A day after taking a decision to withdraw the support extended to the government, Sudurpaschim Province Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah has assigned the responsibility to two ministers participating in the provincial government from the Nagarik Unmukti Party.

According to the Chief Minister's Secretariat, Chief Minister Shah has appointed Laxman Kishor Chaudhary as the Minister for Social Development and Khushiram Dagaura Tharu as the Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment.

Earlier, both of them were appointed as ministers without portfolio.

Damodar Pandit, spokesperson of the party, informed that the meeting of the founding members of the party held in Tikapur on Wednesday decided to support the coalition in the central government and withdraw the support to the province government.

Along with this, Nagarik Unmukti Party will have four ministers and one state minister in the Sudurpaschim government.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the main opposition Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba held a meeting on Thursday.

During the meeting held at the Prime Minister’s residence in Baluwatar, the two leaders discussed transitional justice, smooth running of the federal parliament and other contemporary issues, said Prime Minister's press expert Manohari Timilsina.