KATHMANDU, Dec. 18: Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has said that Nepal will not allow anyone to use its land against the People’s Republic of China.
“We will not allow anyone to use our soil against the neighbouring country, China,”said Prime Minister Koirala while meeting with a delegation of Editors’ Society of China (ESC) on Monday morning.
The 5-member high-level team, led by ESC resident Gui Xiaofeng, arrived here Sunday on a 5-day visit to Nepal at the invitation of President of Editors’ Society of Nepal Devendra Gautam.
Reiterating Nepal’s stance of One-China policy, Koirala said that Nepal strongly supported China on its policy towards Tibet Autonomous Region of Peoples’ Republic of China and Taiwan. He said that Nepal-China ties were so strong that no one could dampen it.
“However, the time has come to expand our ties at people’s level since the government-to-government contact is not sufficient to boost our friendly relations,”observed Koirala.
He also pointed out the need to extend China’s ambitious railway network up to Kathmandu to accelerate economic activities between the two nations.China has already expanded its railway network from Beijing to Lhasa.
Chinese team leader Gui said that the objective of the visit was to enhance the relations between the two nations in the spheres of culture and communications.
We expressed our sincere gratitude towards Prime Minister Koirala for meeting us despite his busy schedules, he added.
Other team members are Yuan Liangxi, Huang Jian, Housheng Shen and Xiao Zhan.
The Chinese delegation also met Speaker Subash Nemwang, State Minister for Information and Communications Dilendra Prasad Badu.
“The friendship between Nepal and China is time-tested,”Speaker Nemwang told the Chinese team during the meeting.
Nemwang stated that this kind of visit would further enhance the ties at the people’s level. “Nepal had a dream to see a railway line from
Kathmandu to Lhasa to Beijing,”he said.
The Chinese team informed that it had a discussion with the railway officers who were positive towards extending railway network near to the Nepal-China border.
The delegation also visited the Gorkhapatra Corporation (GC) and inquired about its publications.
“When I entered the corporation’s building, I instantly smelled that I am visiting a publication house,”Gui shared his first impression of his visit of country’s oldest publication house.
Interacting with GC chairperson, editors of its different publications and officials, he said that he found environment here similar with the People’s Daily in China.
“I am moved by the cordial hospitality of the Nepali people and the government,”he said.
What is more important is the commitment by Prime Minister Koirala to extend firm support to China on Tibet Autonomous Region of People’s Republic of China and Taiwan. “We have been highly satisfied by this assurance.?
He noted that Nepal and China enjoyed amicable ties, which had now expanded at the peoples’ levels.
Stating that Buddhism, Nepali renowned sculptor Araniko and Chinese monks played an important role to establish and cement the relations between the two nations since the ancient times, he said, “Chinese monks, who came Nepal to study Buddhism, eventually took it to China making it a popular religion of Chinese.?
He said that both, Nepal and China had been able to keep their cultures intact from the western’s influence.
Senior Chinese journalist expressed his belief that Nepal would achieve lasting peace and witness economic developments.
GC Chairman Tej Prakash Pandit said that the GC was trying to make its publications inclusive and people-oriented following the establishment of Lokatantra.
In a query of Chinese delegation, Pandit said that although the GC was a state-owned publication house, but it did not receive any support from the government. “Rather we pay about Rs. 4 million to the government in form of tax annually,”he said.
GC Chairman informed that the corporation was soon coming out of control of the government.
Dwelling on the Chinese impressive economic growth, he said that there were many things, which Nepal needed to learn from China.
