Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) yesterday arrived in Kathmandu for talks marking the first visit to Nepal in a decade by a leader of the world’s second--largest economy.
The agenda for the visit has not been disclosed, but analysts expect Wen and Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to discuss investment from Beijing worth billions of US dollars in wide-ranging infrastructure projects.
“Baburam Bhattarai himself welcomed his Chinese counterpart at the international airport in Kathmandu. The visiting prime minister will be escorted to the premier’s office, where the two will hold talks on bilateral political and economic issues,” said Bishwadeep Pandey, Bhattarai’s personal secretary.
Nepalese Minister of Finance Barsha Man Pun said the leaders would sign agreements “on increasing Chinese assistance to Nepal” and discuss the Himalayan nation’s fractious peace process.
Wen is also expected to seek support for Beijing’s policies in Tibet, which has seen a wave of self-immolations over the past year in protest at Chinese rule.
Nepal, home to 20,000 Tibetan exiles, is under pressure to stem the flow of Tibetans fleeing their homeland.
Hundreds make the difficult and dangerous journey to neighboring Nepal every year, though their numbers have fallen sharply in the past few years.
More than 200 Tibetan exiles have been arrested in the past few days for illegally entering the nation, Nepali police said, as part of a security crackdown in the capital.
Sudhir Shahi, a police inspector at Thankot checkpoint, the main entrance to Kathmandu by road, said the detainees were held on Thursday and Friday.
Then-Chinese premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) was the last Chinese leader to visit Nepal, in 2001, although recent years have seen a flurry of visits by Chinese delegations.
“This is the highest-level visit from China to Nepal in more than 10 years. It will be an important platform to strengthen the relationship between the two countries,” former Nepalese ambassador to Beijing Tanka Karki said.
“We can expect Chinese support in infrastructure development. China’s support for peace and constitution-making is also important,” Karki said.
Wen is expected to hold talks at a lunch meeting with the leaders of Nepal’s major political parties and visit Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav.
The Chinese leader had been due to visit last month, but the trip was canceled amid speculation over security concerns.
He was scheduled to depart for the Middle East late yesterday.
Analysts say that while India has traditionally been the influential player in Nepal, China is making huge inroads in a country which is recovering after the end in 2006 of a decade-long civil war that killed about 16,000 people.
Since the end of the conflict, political infighting has paralyzed the country, but recent progress has been made in key areas of the peace process, including an agreement on the integration of 6,500 former Maoist fighters into the army.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS