KATHMANDU: Nepal and China have held a secretary-level meeting to discuss the fight against COVID-19, bilateral relations and implementation of past agreements.
The virtual meeting between Secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Shanker Das Bairagi, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhahui, was convened on Wednesday.
The video meeting centered on sharing efforts made by two countries to combat the pandemic, review of the agreements signed in the past and other practical cooperation, according to MoFA.
The meeting, however, did not make any formal decision, according to a ministry source.The source said that the meeting was largely an informal discussion between senior officials of the two countries on various bilateral issues as well as sharing experiences of both countries on combating the spread of coronavirus.
Both the MoFA and the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal have written tweets following the virtual meeting.
Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi, in her tweet, termed the meeting ‘fruitful’. “A video meeting was held between Nepali Foreign Secretary Mr. Shanker Das Bairagi and Chinese Foreign Minister Mr Luo Zhaohui today. Fruitful discussion on combating COVID-19, bilateral relations, practical cooperation and others,” said Chinese Ambassador Yanqi in her tweet.
Zhaohui is Vice Foreign Minister whose areas of responsibility include Asia, treaty and law, boundary and ocean affairs and consular affairs in the ministry. He was the Chinese ambassador to India before serving as the Vice Foreign Minister.
In its tweet post along with a photo of the meeting, the MOFA said, “In a virtual Foreign office meeting led by Foreign Secretary of Nepal and Vice-Minister of China today, the two sides reviewed bilateral relations, implementations of Agreements signed in the past and fighting against Covid-19 pandemic.”
The tweet also mentioned the Twitter handle Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali, Foreign Secretary and Nepal’s Ambassador to Spokesperson Bharat Raj Poudyal.
