Kathmandu: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli left for Beijing for a four-day official visit to China on Monday at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
During his stay in Beijing, Prime Minister Oli will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He will discuss various issues of bilateral interest in his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Li. Prime Minister Oli is scheduled to meet China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee Chairman Zhao Leji. During the visit, Prime Minister Oli is scheduled to address a program organized at Peking University and the Nepal-China Business Forum jointly organized by the Nepali Embassy in Beijing, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Nepal Federation of Commerce and Industry.
His first official visit after taking office four months ago to Beijing was marked by heated debate between the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML over whether Nepal should accept to build Nepal-China bilateral projects only if China provides grants or also on loans—whatever the type.
Nepali Congress has opposed the loan model while CPN-UML appeared to be in favor of building projects under loan as well.
It took days of negotiations for the two parties to agree that there would be no loan agreements with China during the PM’s visit.
Though Nepal signed the BRI framework agreement with China in May 2017, there has been no progress on it because of the issues surrounding financing modality, as well as the differences among the political parties in their understanding of what BRI means for Nepal. While UML and other communist parties have remained steadfast supporter of the BRI, Nepali Congress has stood opposed to implementing the BRI projects on loan basis.
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