PM Koirala, however, did not call on Chinese President Xi Jinping and his counterpart Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. A source said that PM Koirala’s China visit was planned in a rush, and since he did not have the time to prepare the issues to discuss with the Chinese government, it was only logical that he did not visit Beijing.

Unlike PM Koirala, former prime ministers, including Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal (both representing leftist party), had met with their Chinese counterparts.     

Some are of the view that Koirala failed to make his China trip fruitful, but others disagree saying that he consciously did not choose to pay a goodwill visit to Beijing because he was expecting to see the Chinese premier at the expo. China sent its Vice Prime Minister Wang Yang to attend the event.

“Another reason PM Koirala did not visit Beijing,” the source said, “was that he was yet to pay an official state visit to India.”

Nepali prime ministers paying state visit to India ahead of China has become an almost customary tradition. PM Koirala apparently did not wish to change that, the source said A Foreign Ministry official, however, said that there was a strong possibility of PM Koirala paying a goodwill visit to Beijing in the last hours because Nepal was the ‘Country of Honour’ for this year’s expo.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed had done the same thing when Bangladesh was the ‘Country of Honour’ last year.   

“For China, Nepal is as important as Bangladesh. If Bangladeshi premier can meet both Xi and Li, why not ours,” the official said.

He added the ministry was ready to arrange the meeting of PM Koirala with Chinese officials and China was also positive about the affair. He said PM Koirala did not give his go-ahead, which could have changed everything.  

Nepali Ambassador to China Mahesh Maskey said that the meetings with President Xi and Premier Li could not take place as Koirala’s China visit was confirmed in the eleventh hour.

Rather than heading for Beijing, Maskey said, it was good that PM Koirala focused his trip on the expo. “His participation in the expo and the achievements that was made there should be more important,” the Nepali envoy said.    

Dinesh Bhattarai, foreign policy advisor to PM Koirala, agrees with Maskey. He claimed that Koirala’s China visit was productive, though he did not meet China’s premier and president.