"Natural To Desire Enhanced Economic Partnership With China": Nepal PM

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' on Sunday said that his country wants to enhance the economic partnership with China for mutual benefits.

"As a close neighbour, it is but natural for Nepal to desire for enhanced economic partnership with China for mutual benefits," Prachanda said while addressing a meeting with Chinese Business Enterprises in Beijing.

"There are so many enabling factors anchored in close affinity and geographical proximity of both the two countries that need to be utilized to promote mutually beneficial cooperation," said Prachanda, according to sources at the Prime Minister's secretariat.

Being close friends and trusted partners, Nepal and China enjoy close, deep-rooted and multifaceted bilateral relations, which are based on the principles of peaceful coexistence, mutual understanding, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, said the prime minister, who is currently on an official visit to China.

Prachanda, who politically distanced from the pro-China Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) headed by KP Oli after becoming Prime Minister in December last year, made his maiden visit to China after visiting India and the US.

"Our relations exemplify how two neighbours of different geographical size, populations and levels of development can be trusted friends and partners. These relations, guided by immense goodwill, mutual respect, shared aspiration and appreciation of each other's concerns, have ever been growing on many fronts of mutual interest," he added.

"Nepal is making continued efforts to facilitate trade and find ways particularly to increase its exports to China. This can be done by enhancing Nepal's productive capacity, improving physical infrastructure and making the quality certification mechanism more robust," he said.

The export of Nepali products such as tea, herbal medicine, citrus food, buffalo meat, coffee, ginger, and yarn to China has great potential and should, therefore, be prioritized, said Prachanda. "We need to reduce technical barriers and ensure preferential treatment of these products." On Saturday, Prime Minister Prachanda had one-on-one and delegation-level meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"Had a fruitful meeting with Xi Jinping, President of PR China. We exchanged views on a range of issues of bilateral relations and cooperation in our mutual interests. We agreed to collaborate closely and advance Nepal-China relations to strengthen ever-lasting friendship," Prachanda said in a post on platform X after the meeting.

Prachanda has directly flown to China from New York, where he addressed the 78th General Assembly of the United Nations.

The Prime Minister is accompanied by Foreign Minister N P Saud and other senior officials during his official visit to China. Prachanda will hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang on September 25. 

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