The foreign ministries of Nepal and China on Thursday announced the week-long official visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to the northern neighbour beginning on Saturday.

At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Prime Minister Dahal is paying an official visit to the north from September 23 to 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Dahal is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou.

Dahal will also hold a meeting with Li, and meet with Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, in Beijing.

“Nepal and China enjoy an excellent state of bilateral relations as good friends, close neighbours and trusted partners. The pedestal of this strong relationship has been nurtured by many commonalities in culture, history, and geography. This visit will bolster our age-old bilateral relations and expand the areas of cooperation in various fields of mutual interest,” reads the statement.

A Cabinet meeting on September 15 cleared agreements, understanding, and some memoranda of understanding to be signed during the visit.

The two sides will sign agreements on establishing agro-industrial parks, cooperation in agricultural sectors like fisheries and livestock, cultural cooperation, and constructing north-south corridor roads besides a cross-border transmission line. Dahal will also address the China-Nepal Investment Summit jointly organised by CCPIT and FNCCI and the Nepali Embassy in Beijing. As per the statement, Prime Minister Dahal will also attend the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Saturday.

“The prime minister is scheduled to visit Chongqing Municipality to observe the agricultural and industrial advancement of China. He will also visit Lhasa, [in the] Tibet Autonomous Region of China that borders Nepal,” reads the statement. Some ministers and senior government officials will accompany the prime minister to China until his return on September 30.

In Beijing, Mao Ning, the foreign ministry spokesperson of China, said on Thursday that Beijing is willing to work with Nepal and takes the visit as an opportunity to deepen strategic mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, jointly build the “Belt and Road” with high quality, and push Nepal-China strategic partnership to a new level.

“Prime Minister Prachanda [Dahal] has visited China many times and made important contributions to promoting the development of China-Nepal relations,” she said during a regular press conference on Thursday.

The leaders of the two countries will have an in-depth exchange of views on deepening traditional friendship, expanding mutually beneficial cooperation, and international and regional issues of common concern, she added.

“China and Nepal are traditional friendly neighbours and strategic partners. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 68 years ago, no matter how the international and regional situations change, China-Nepal relations have always maintained healthy and stable development,” she said. “The two countries understand and support each other on issues involving each other's core interests, and have established a principle of equal treatment and win-win cooperation between countries of different sizes and models.”

In recent years, the two countries have had frequent high-level exchanges and cooperation in economic, trade, cultural and other fields, said the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. “The two sides have maintained close coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs.”