KTHMANDU, Sept. 12, Reuter: King Birendra of Nepal arrives in Peking on a State visit on Monday and is likely to discuss with his hosts regional tensions in South Asia following India’s despatch of thousands of troops to Sri Lanka,
India has a dominant role in the economy of Nepal, which it surrounds on three sides, and observers say Birendra will be more than ever lookingto China as a counter ‘weight to its other giant neighbor,
Birendra, 41, making his first formal visit to China since 1973, has no fixed agenda for his three
Days of talks and banquets in Peking but South Asian affairs are expected to be uppermost.
The king will be host in early ‘November to the six other heads of. State of the South Asian Association for Region Cooperation (SAARC), whose Chairman, he will become, and the Indo
Sri Lankan Accord is also likely to figure largely there.
A government newspaper in Kathmandu last month referred to “the happy state of relations between Nepal and China” and Chinese Ambassador a Debiao recently said their ties “have set an example for relations between states in the world”.
Both sides are eager to increase trade and tourism, and Birendra flies to Peking only two days after the inaugural flight by the Chinese CAAC between Kathmandu and Lhasa, capital of China’s Tibet autonomous region.
Birendra’s hosts may also want to discuss Nepal’s recent cancellation, under Indian pressure, of a contract with a Chinese enterprise to build a highway in Southern Nepal not far from the border with India,
Kathmandu also had to promise New Delhi that Chinese technicians would not be permitted to work in its southern region.
China i$ a major donor of economic aid to Nepal, and despite India’s doubts, the King may take the opportunity to discuss future areas of Chinese assistance in highway construction, small factories or hydro electrie scheme.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1987
