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By Our Reporter

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is now on the way to return home from a four-day official visit at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

He reached Beijing on Monday evening and remained busy in high-level meetings and bilateral talks on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he addressed a function organised at Peking University. He is returning home on Thursday.

His visit to China remained successful in terms of his meetings with President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Qiang and other Chinese leaders and the way he was welcomed as the Prime Minister of Nepal. Issuance of the joint statement by the two countries at the end of the bilateral talks on Wednesday also proved that PM Oli’s visit to China was successful.

However, no agreement in the BRI framework was signed, when the Chinese side reportedly did not agree on the word ‘grant’ inserted by the Nepali side in the BRI document. Instead of signing the agreement, the two sides agreed to ink it at an appropriate time in near future. Likewise, the issue of converting the loan provided to build the Pokhara International Airport into a grant was not discussed. Before leaving for China, PM Oli had said that he would request the Chinese leader to convert the loan into a grant.

Excluding these two issues, the visit looks successful. PM Oli himself must be satisfied with the visit as he openly discussed other issues and did not have to sign the BRI agreement because back in home, the Nepali Congress, the ruling coalition party has been against the idea of accepting any loan under BRI. In a sense, Oli managed to kill two birds with a stone—he did not irk both China and Nepali Congress.

During PM Oli’s meeting with the Chinese President at Villa No. 12 at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in western Beijing on Tuesday afternoon, the latter pledged to facilitate the export of Nepali goods to China and mobilise Chinese investment to Nepal.

During a meeting with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Beijing on Tuesday, the Chinese President said that more facilitation to the promotion of Chinese investment in Nepal and latter’s export promotion would be offered by China, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Krishna Prasad Dhakal said while talking with media persons in Beijing.

On the occasion, President Xi announced a 500 million RMB (equivalent to Rs. 9.3 billion) grant support to Nepal.

PM Oli extended an official invitation to President Xi to visit Nepal on the occasion of the 70 years of the establishment of the bilateral relations between Nepal and China, and in response, the latter said that he would make it happen in an appropriate time in future.

On the same day, Prime Minister Oli was welcomed by his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Following their bilateral talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing of various nine agreements and memorandums of understanding between the two governments.

On the occasion, PM Oli invited his Chinese counterpart to Nepal.

Likewise, PM Oli also met with Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China where the two discussed matters of bilateral relations and parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.