Kathmandu October 26, 2005 -Another Nepali minister left for a weeklong visit to China Wednesday, a day after the kingdom announced that Beijing has pledged 8 million yuan as arms aid to the Royal Nepalese Army.
Minister for General Administration Krishna Lal Thakali headed for Beijing at the invitation of Chinese Minister for Civil Aviation Zhang Mauling. Thakali is likely to hold talks there on the Chinese railway extending to Lhasa in Tibet and a civil hospital to be built in Nepal with Chinese assistance.
Kathmandu is hoping the Tibetan railway will develop Nepal as a transit economy by improving trade between Nepal’s two giant neighbours, China on the north and India on the south.
Thakali’s departure takes place a day after Nepal’s chief of army Gen Pyar Jung Thapa returned from a weeklong visit to China and announced that Beijing had pledged military assistance worth nearly a million dollars to Nepal.
Diplomatic ties between Nepal and China have deepened since the royal coup while Kathmandu’s relations with New Delhi have touched rock bottom.
Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey this week is on a visit to Russia and Pakistan, countries that have supported the royal coup. India’s Joint Secretary in charge of Nepal, Ranjit Rae, was sent to meet Pandey at the airport as he transited through New Delhi, while earlier this month, when India’s External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh halted at Kathmandu on the way to Bhutan he was greeted at the airport by Pandey himself.
(IANS)
