Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, who is in New York leading the Nepali delegation to the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, attended the general debate on Thursday.

Mahat is scheduled to address the session on Saturday. According to the ministry, Nepal and El Salvador, a central American republic, established diplomatic relations on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UNGA.

Minister Mahat and Hugo Roger Martinez Bonilla, the foreign minister of El Salvador, signed a joint communiqué to this effect at a special ceremony at the UN Headquarters. The number of countries with which Nepal established diplomatic relations has now reached 144.

Meanwhile, Mahat held separate bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Mongolia and Serbia. He also represented Nepal in an informal meeting of the Saarc Council of Ministers in New York on Wednesday.