At a time when the planned visit of the Chinese president to Nepal in October is yet to be confirmed, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that he will be meeting with Xi Jinping during the upcoming BRICS Summit in Goa, India.

India is hosting the eighth summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on October 15 and 16.

Dahal informed a meeting of the CPN (Maoist Centre) Secretariat on Monday that Xi’s visit to Kathmandu would be fixed after the Goa meeting.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited the heads of state or government of BIMSTEC member counties to the BRICS Summit as observers and for an interaction with BRICS leaders.

According to a senior Maoist leader, Chinese leaders had proposed Deputy PM and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, when he visited Beijing as the prime minister’s special envoy last month, a meeting between Xi and Dahal at the BRICS Summit before deciding on the high-level visit.

“The Chinese president’s visit to Nepal was not fixed earlier,” Dahal told the meeting, hinting that Xi’s visit to Nepal was unlikely anytime soon.

Several delegations from China in the recent past had indicated that the Chinese president was interested to visit Nepal in October but there has not been concrete homework on either side for such a high-profile event.

“We are in touch with the Chinese side about the visit,” said Rishi Raj Adhikari, foreign relations adviser to the PM.

Officials pointed to the lack of preparations for setting the agenda for the visit. The Nepali side requested China to hold the pending bilateral meetings at various levels. But the Chinese side has communicated that high-level meetings to prepare for the visit would resume after the Goa summit.

Ahead of the presidential visit, Nepal and China should conduct two high-level meetings at the foreign and finance secretary levels. Both the sides had agreed to host the meetings in Kathmandu but the Chinese side unilaterally postponed them after a change of guard in Kathmandu.

China to send female envoy

KATHMANDU: China has proposed a new ambassador to Nepal as the incumbent, Wu Chuntai, completes his three-year term in Kathmandu this week. Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Beijing would send a senior female diplomat from the Chinese Foreign Service to head the mission. But officials declined to name her. A senior Foreign Ministry official said the nominee has yet to be endorsed. After Nepal’s approval, the Chinese side will formally announce her nomination. (PR)