Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is leaving for Goa, India on Saturday and is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the day on the sidelines of the eighth Brics Summit in the Indian tourist state.

The meeting between Dahal and Xi will focus on fixing the latter’s visit to Nepal and implementation of the agreements reached between the two countries, Minister for Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat said on Friday.

Brics is a club of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and the bloc is meeting in Goa on Saturday and Sunday.

“During his meeting with Xi, PM Dahal will invite him to visit Nepal at the earliest possible date,” said Mahat at a press conference organised at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Besides, the meeting will also dwell on bilateral assistance and cooperation and implementation of the past agreements.”

Earlier there were talks about Xi’s visit to Nepal either on his way to Goa or while returning from the Brics Summit. However, there was no confirmation to this effect from either side.

It was believed that Xi would visit Nepal while visiting Cambodia and Bangladesh. The Chinese president, however, left for Cambodia on Thursday and travelled to Bangladesh on Friday. During Xi’s visit to Bangladesh, China was set to sign off on loans worth over $24 billion, Dhaka’s biggest foreign credit line to date that will help it build power plants, a seaport and railways, according to Reuters. Xi’s trip to Bangladesh, the first by a Chinese president in 30 years, is aimed at boosting China’s involvement in infrastructure projects in the country.

Since assuming office in August, PM Dahal has laid stress on cordial relations with both neighbouring countries and maintain high-level exchanges, as part of which he visited India on September 15-18 and Indian President Pranab Mukherjee is arriving in Nepal on November 2.

From the northern neighbour, Jiang Zemin was the last Chinese president to visit Nepal in December 1996. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had briefly visited Nepal in January 2012.

“High-level exchanges between the two countries are important,” said Minister Mahat.

In Goa, PM Dahal will participate in the Brics-Bimstec Outreach Summit on Sunday. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or Bimstec, is a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia and includes Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.

The Outreach Summit will be followed by a retreat.

“The Summit is expected to provide an important platform to explore areas of partnership between the two dynamic groups of countries,” Mahat added.