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The official visit of Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi this weekend is not only expected to take the centuries-old people-to-people relations between the two countries to new heights but also ensure that problem-free Nepal-China relations can build a reliable partnership in Nepal’s journey towards prosperity.

The visit, which is taking place after a hiatus of three years, is expected to be productive in further strengthening cooperation and partnership between Nepal and China on issues of common concern and mutual interest. Foreign Minister Wang is a senior diplomat and an old friend of Nepal, who is aware of the development aspirations of Nepal and Nepalis. His visit is expected to be fruitful in taking the relations between the two countries to new heights.

Foreign Minister Wang is the first highest foreign dignitary to visit Nepal after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba assumed leadership of the government in July last year. It will be a golden opportunity to promote Nepal’s national interest and expand the scope of cooperation. The government has made Nepal’s national interest and development needs and priorities as its agenda to increase partnership and cooperation with China, the world’s emerging power, during his stay here.

A foreign ministry official stated that Nepal would hold in-depth discussions with a delegation led by Foreign Minister Wang regarding the implementation of cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-billion dollar infrastructure development project put forward by China. The two sides will dwell on upgrading Nepal from a least-developed country to a middle-income country by 2030 and build physical infrastructures such as ports, roads, railways, air transport and communications within the Trans-Himalayan Multidimensional Connectivity Network to support Nepal’s development agenda of achieving sustainable development goals.

He said the Chinese foreign minister was visiting Nepal to convey the message of China’s commitment to implementing the BRI and its Framework Agreement that could not move forward for the past five years owing to the pandemic.

China has already proposed the project implementation plan of BRI with Nepal for final approval and the Government of Nepal is ready to finalize it during this visit.

During talks between the foreign ministers of Nepal and China on Saturday, the Nepali side is all set to request joint inspection of the border, which has been stalled for more than a decade, reopening of Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani (major trade ports between Nepal and China), resumption of flights and addressing the problems faced by Nepali students who returned home to escape the pandemic, the official shared.

The foreign ministry official also said that Nepal would raise issues including the implementation of the agreements reached during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal and the visit of former prime minister KP Sharma Oli to China. Discussions are going on between various ministries of the Government of Nepal to finalize the agenda of the meeting between Chinese and Nepali foreign ministers on Saturday. During the visit of the Chinese foreign minister, an agreement will be signed to export grass from Nepal and Nepal will receive additional Chinese grants under technical and economic assistance. “Discussions between senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance on the annual assistance to Nepal under grant and technical and financial assistance is in the process of finalisation,” an official at the Ministry of Finance said. China has hinted it could increase its annual aid this year, the official said.

Such visits from time to time will help understand each other and address grievances as well as renew the relationship.

The age-old Nepal-China friendship that has been nurtured by Araniko and Bhrikuti has been flourishing since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1955. The tradition of friendly cooperation and high-level visits have further enhanced the bond of affinity for the mutual benefit of both countries. RSS

Minister for Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale is leaving for India on Thursday.

Minister Ale is leaving for India today to take part in a program organized by the government of India and Wings India 2022 in the field of tourism and civil aviation. 

It has been learnt that Prime Minister Narendr Modi will inaugurate the program to be held in Hyderabad of India. 

Minister Ale is scheduled to present his views in the field of tourism promotion and civil aviation in Nepal, Nepal Civil Aviation Authority DDG Hansaraj Pandey said.

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal claimed that there will be an alliance with the Nepali Congress in all three tiers of elections. 

Talking to journalists at his home district in Chitwan on Thursday, he said the party still has alliance with the Nepali Congress and will also be forged in all three tiers of elections. 

“The current alliance will not only last for local but also for provincial and federal elections,” Chairman Dahal said.

Though the Chitwan Congress has claimed that there will not be an alliance, he said that the alliance will be forged from the centre. 

He came to Chitwan to take part in various programs to be organized in his constituency Madi. 

With Sri Lanka staring at an unprecedented economic crisis, the refugee flow to Tamil Nadu has commenced after 16 Sri Lankan nationals reached the shores of the state, The Economic Times reported.

On Tuesday, the refugees arrived in Tamil Nadu in two batches.

While six people, including a family of a man, wife and their 4 month-old son and a woman and her six and twelve year old children arrived on Tuesday afternoon, the rest arrived late at night.

In Sri Lanka there is a high financial crisis with prices of essential commodities, including milk and rice skyrocketing, petrol and diesel not available and power stations shut. Schools are not holding examinations due to lack of paper for printing question papers.

It may be noted that the Civil war in the early 1980's triggered an inflow of people from Sri Lanka and now around 60,000 refugees are living in 107 camps spread across Tamil Nadu and about 30,000 more live outside these camps or in general society, according to The Economic Times.

The first batch of six refugees who arrived in the state have been identified as R. Gajendran (24), his wife Mary (23) and their four-month-old son Nijath. Dony Ariston (31) and her two sons, Esther (12) and Moses (6) also accompanied Gajendran's family. Dony has left behind her husband in Sri Lanka while traversing to India as a refugee.

Interacting with reporters at Madurai, Gajendran and the two women said that they don't have any jobs in Sri Lanka and essential commodities were not available while blackmarket prices were unaffordable. They also said that long ques can be seen in fuel stations.

They also said that they had paid an amount of Rs 50,000 to a boatman who had dropped them early morning of Tuesday at a sand dune near Rameswaram and were later rescued by the Indian coast guard. Ten other people also reached Tamil Nadu late evening of Tuesday but their details were not available, The Economic Times reported.

Police sources told IANS that the refugees would be produced before a court in Ramanathapuram on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka posted soldiers at hundreds of state-run gas stations on Tuesday to help distribute fuel after a sudden rise in prices of key commodities and accompanying shortages forced tens of thousands of people to queue for hours, Reuters reported.

The Indian Ocean nation is battling a foreign exchange crisis that forced a currency devaluation and hit payments for essential imports such as food, medicine and fuel, prompting it to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.

"The government has to provide solutions," said Seetha Gunasekera, 36, who lives with her husband and two children in Colombo, the capital.

"There is too much hardship and suffering," added Gunasekera, who said she was spending more time in fuel queues than doing anything else.

"Prices of everything have increased and we are barely able to manage with what we earn daily."

The decision to deploy troops near petrol pumps and kerosene supply points came after three elderly people dropped dead during their wait in long queues, officials said, according to Reuters.

It was a response to complaints of stockpiling and inefficient distribution, said government spokesman Ramesh Pathirana.

"The military has been deployed to help the public, not to curtail their human rights," he added.

TWO SOLDIERS AT EACH PUMP

Military spokesman Nilantha Premaratne told Reuters at least two army personnel would be stationed at every fuel pump to help organise fuel distribution, but the soldiers would not be involved in crowd control.

Tension over the scarcity of supplies has fed sporadic violence among those scrambling to buy fuel and other essential items.

Police said a man was stabbed to death on Monday in an argument with the driver of a three-wheeled vehicle, while last week three elderly men died queueing for fuel in sweltering heat, Reuters reported.

The rapid drain of Sri Lanka's dollars has left it struggling to pay for critical imports as currency reserves have slumped 70% in the last two years to $2.31 billion.

But Sri Lanka has to repay about $4 billion in debt in the rest of this year, including a $1-billion international sovereign bond that matures in July.

Ahead of IMF talks in Washington in April, the government said it would hire a global law firm to provide technical assistance on debt restructuring to fight the crisis, according to Reuters.

Anatoly Chubais has stepped down from his role as an international envoy for President Vladimir Putin, the most senior official to resign since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, BBC reported.

Russian reports said he was currently in Turkey with his wife.

Mr Chubais was given the job of coordinating Russia's sustainable development goals internationally.

After the war began he posted a picture of a murdered opposition figure, in what was seen as a critical gesture.

There was no comment to accompany his Facebook photo of Boris Nemtsov, on the anniversary of his killing in view of the Kremlin. He has also made no comment yet on his resignation, according to BBC.

A source told the Tass news agency that he had left Russia as well as resigning as a special representative to President Putin.

"Yes, Chubais has resigned of his own will. But whether he has left [Russia] or stayed, that's his personal affair," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Other than Mr Peskov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, few members of the president's circle have appeared in public in recent weeks.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Wednesday that it was interesting that the two top security figures, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, were "nowhere to be seen", along with the heads of Russia's secret services.

Chubais was not seen as a Kremlin insider, despite having the post of special representative for ties with international organisations, BBC reported.

He is best known for his controversial role in helping to reform Russia's economy in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. The raft of privatisations under President Boris Yeltsin helped create a large number of very wealthy oligarchs.

Opposition figures were unimpressed by Mr Chubais's resignation. Jailed leader Alexei Navalny's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, cast doubt on claims that it was an anti-war protest, rather than "out of fear for his own skin and his own money". 

Russia has clamped down on criticism of the invasion, which began on 24 February, requiring state-run media to describe it as a "special military operation".

Several state TV journalists have resigned, including Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova, who held up a poster saying "Stop the War!" during a prime-time news broadcast, telling Russians they were being lied to, according to BBC.

A new law bans the dissemination of "false news" about the war and political journalist Alexander Nevzorov became the most prominent figure yet to be prosecuted, after he posted details on social media about Russia's deadly attack on a maternity hospital in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where fierce resistance from the country’s defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought, Associated Press reported.

By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan.

A senior NATO military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released — intentionally or not — and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.

Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but President Volodymr Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed.

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed likely. But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign, according to the Associated Press.

Zelenskyy — who has riveted the world’s attention with ad hoc videos and speeches to legislatures seeking military aid for his country — seized on the anniversary to plead for people around the world to gather in public Thursday to show support for Ukraine, saying the war breaks the heart of “every free person on the planet.”

“Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,” Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address to the nation, recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. “Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.”

Speaking in Russian, Zelenskyy appealed to Russians “to leave Russia so as not to give your tax money to the war.” Tens of thousands of Russians already have fled their country since the war began, fearing an intensifying crackdown on dissent that has included the arrest of thousands of antiwar protesters and suppression of the media.

Zelenskyy, who will speak to NATO members by video on Thursday, also said he is asking the alliance to provide “effective and unrestricted” support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian invasion.

With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya, Associated Press reported.

A senior US defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles) outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city center.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.

Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritizing the fight in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said. The US also has seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the official said.

In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, a senior Russian official said the country’s nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.

“The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance,” Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, said in televised remarks. He noted that Moscow’s nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. Roscosmos oversees missile-building facilities.

US officials long have warned that Russia’s military doctrine envisages an “escalate to deescalate” option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.

Rogozin is known for his bluster, and he did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin. Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.

As US President Joe Biden left for Europe to meet with key allies about new sanctions against Moscow and more military aid to Ukraine, he warned there is a “real threat” Russia could use chemical weapons.

On the eve of a meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($550 million) in military aid for Ukraine. 

Zelenskyy appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face of Russia’s efforts to “lobby its interests” with “some partners” to bring them over to its side, and noted during his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.

Norwegian Ambassador to Nepal Torun Dramdal today paid a courtesy call on Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal at the latter's office in Singha Durbar on Wednesday.

The meeting between the two focused on bilateral welfare and concerns of both Nepal and Norway.

Stating that Norway was a reliable development partner for Nepal, the minister remembered Norway's positive assistance for the drafting of the Constitution and peace process in Nepal.

Praising Norway for its assistance in the areas of energy, society, education and climate change, she said that Nepal was always interested to cooperate with the country in the realms of mutual concerns and development between the two countries.

Saying that Nepal has been incurring a huge loss every year due to off-season rains caused by climate change, Minister Bhusal said that Nepal wants to join hands with the Norwegian Government in reducing such risks.

It could be an exemplary work when there was a cooperation between Nepal and Norway in reducing risks in districts like Manang, Ilam and Sindhupalchowk where off-season rains took its toll, she added.

In response, the Norwegian Ambassador said that the Norwegian Government was interested in expanding its investments in the energy sector of Nepal and would cooperate with it in the development of its renewable energy and hydropower. RSS