Kathmandu, September 2: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has proposed a direct flight with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

PM Oli proposed to Putin during a bilateral meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Tianjin on Monday evening (September 1).

According to a government official accompanying PM Oli on the visiting team, PM Oli has also proposed moving forward to expand the relations between the two countries further.

"There has been a proposal from the Prime Minister to start direct Russia-Nepal air flights," the official said, adding that "discussions have also been held to further expand the relationship between the two countries."

At the same time, discussions were also held on increasing the scholarships being received by Nepali students in Russia.

Russian President Putin expressed the view that the relations between the two countries are very cordial. There is no problem in relations between the two nations, said the President.  

Nepal and Russia established diplomatic relations in 1956, and the then USSR enormously contributed to infrastructural development, industrialization and other sectors. Russia supported Nepal for human resources development by providing scholarships to the Nepali students specially in the medical and educational sectors.

There was a meeting between them for about 25 minutes, while there was a discussion for about four and a half hours with the government team in the Nepali delegation.

Prime Minister Oli has been in China since Saturday to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

People's News Monitoring Service.