Prime Minister Balendra Shah, who had avoided one-on-one meetings with foreign officials, is set to hold his first such meeting with Asian Development Bank President Masato Kanda.

Kanda will be the first foreign official to meet the Prime Minister individually. According to a senior foreign ministry official, Shah will meet the ADB president on Tuesday. Kanda is set to talk to Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and other government officials on Monday before seeing the prime minister.

Kanda will be accompanied by senior ADB officials, including Sona Shrestha, a Nepali citizen appointed vice-president for South, Central and West Asia. Foreign policy observers describe the prime minister's strict protocol on meetings with foreign leaders and officials as a deliberate reset of Nepal's diplomatic posture.

They say it signals the new government's intention to consolidate foreign policy authority, reduce mixed messaging, and shift from personality-driven engagement with the international community toward a more coherent, state-led approach. During his visit, Kanda will also inspect several ADB-funded projects in Nepal.

In an interview with the Post, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said the prime minister would meet foreign leaders, officials and diplomats whenever required.

"The government's utmost priority is to ensure good governance and economic progress. That is why the prime minister has been busy. But he has not imposed any moratorium on meetings or foreign visits. At least I have not heard that from the prime minister. It is also yet to be decided where he will make his first foreign visit," Khanal said.

Earlier, the prime minister declined requests to meet Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Paul Kapur from the US State Department and US President Donald Trump's special envoy and US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor. After Shah declined a meeting, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's planned visit to Nepal was postponed.

After becoming the prime minister, breaking with a long tradition of individual, unstructured meetings with foreign envoys, Shah interacted with Kathmandu-based diplomats jointly on April 8. Later, on May 26, twenty-three European Union ambassadors and deputy heads of mission based in Kathmandu and New Delhi, Thailand, Russia, Australia, Myanmar, the UAE, Norway, Finland, Malaysia, and Brazil jointly called on the prime minister.

Prime Minister Shah not meeting any foreign diplomats and officials was praised by many as maintaining state decorum and protocol.

During Kanda's visit, the government and the ADB will sign a $50 million policy-based loan agreement to help Nepal modernise its customs administration, facilitate trade, and support jobs creation.

According to the ADB, the programme will modernise customs through digitalisation, risk-based inspections and streamlined procedures while strengthening the logistics sector through better infrastructure planning, regulatory frameworks and institutional coordination. The reforms are expected to reduce trade costs, improve border predictability and supply chain efficiency, facilitate the movement of goods, and deepen Nepal's integration into regional value chains.

The government and the ADB are also expected to sign an agreement related to the Integrated Water Supply and Sewerage Management (Sector) Project, a $115 million initiative aimed at providing climate-resilient water supply and comprehensive urban sanitation services, including faecal sludge, solid waste and wastewater management, in secondary and smaller towns. The project covers Bharatpur, Hetauda, Birgunj, Janakpur, Biratnagar, Dharan, Butwal, Pokhara, Lumbini Sanskritik, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi and Bhimdutta. The ADB recently approved financing for both projects.

Chinese vice-minister for commerce to visit Nepal

Chinese Vice Minister for Commerce Yan Dong is paying an official visit to Nepal at the invitation of Finance Secretary Ghanshyam Upadhyay.

Nepal and China had set up a mechanism — the Nepal-China Joint Economic and Trade Committee—to promote economic cooperation between the two countries at the finance secretary level. Its meeting is scheduled to take place in Kathmandu on Tuesday, a senior finance ministry official said.

The Joint Economic and Trade Committee is a primary bilateral mechanism established in 1983 to promote economic cooperation, trade relations, and development assistance between the two countries. Its meetings are typically led by the finance or the commerce secretary of Nepal and the Vice Minister of Commerce of China, according to the finance ministry.

At the session, both sides will review the development of bilateral trade, economic and technical assistance and economic cooperation between Nepal and China in recent years, finance ministry officials said. Projects related to connectivity, border roads, transit, trade, quarantine labs, and banking will be discussed.

The meeting follows the recent official visit by Foreign Minister Khanal to Beijing where both sides discussed the status of Chinese-funded projects in Nepal.