Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat called on his Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter on Sunday and urged him to put Nepal in Swiss assistance priority.

Mahat who is in Geneva, Switzerland, to participate in the 34th session of Human Rights Council, made such a request to Burkhalter during a bilateral meeting, Foreign Ministry said in a statement. While thanking for assistance extended to Nepal in its development endeavour, Minister Mahat had sought more Swiss assistance in Nepal’s infrastructure sector. Mahat urged his Swiss counterpart to extend its support in Nepal’s reconstruction bid, development endeavours as well as infrastructure sectors.

In response, the Swiss minister assured Mahat of continued Swiss assistance to Nepal in various sectors, saying that his government would think over how it can assist Nepal in reconstruction and upcoming elections. “We are also in discussion on how the Swiss assistance in Nepal can be widened in future and how to make them more fruitful so that Nepal can be benefitted much,” Burkhalter told Mahat, according to the statement. Mahat is scheduled to meet High Commissioner for UN Refugee Filippo Grandi, among other officials, on the sidelines of the council meeting in the Swiss lake city on Tuesday.