Kathmandu: The ninth meeting of the Nepal-China Consultative Mechanism is being held here after a gap of four years as Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday leading an official delegation.
Fu boarded a flight from Bhutan where China has recently opened its embassy.
The meeting will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations, evaluate the projects funded by China in Nepal, security, trade, tourism and investments, according to officials.
Deputy Foreign Minister Fu will call on Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, meet Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha and SAARC Secretary-General Ahmed Saleem among others.
The Nepal-China Consultative Mechanism is headed by the Nepalese Foreign Secretary and the Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and is the highest bilateral mechanism existing between the two countries.
During Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao`s visit to Nepal in mid-January, the two sides had agreed to make extensive use of existing mechanisms, including diplomatic consultations along with the Nepal-China Joint Economic and Trade Committee Meeting and the political consultative mechanism is also expected to assess the progress made after the visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Nepal.
In recent times, a series of cross-ministerial meetings have taken place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to update the status of China-funded projects in Nepal, assess the status of Chinese assistance to Nepal and others.
PTI
