Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a 20-hour visit to Kathmandu, becoming the first Chinese President to visit Nepal in 23 years. He met the Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandar, Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, head of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal (@ Prachanda) and members of his Party Secretariat and former Prime Minister Sher Singh Deuba. Interesting was that during his meeting with Dahal on October 13, the Chinese President said "China and Nepal are bound by mountains and rivers, and stay as close as lips and teeth," a phrase commonly reserved for China’s northern ally North Korea. China's stat-owned CCTV especially publicised Xi Jinping's hard-hitting warning, during his meeting with Nepal's Prime Minister KP Oli, that ."Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shuttered bones. And any external forces backing such attempts dividing China will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming!" The joint statement issued after the visit showed that the visit had been substantial and agreement was reached on a number of issues of interest to both countries, including on opening of Chinese banks in Kathmandu and elsewhere, military cooperation, sister city ties, a new Nepalese Consulate in Chengdu, water supply, energy, rail and road links between China and Nepal including tunnels through the Himalayas for the Kyirong-Kathmandu Railway, grant of 100 Confucius Institute scholarships, etc. 20 bilateral agreements were signed.
|
