'PM's Spain visit contributes to strengthening relations with friendly nations'

Kathmandu, July 4: The government has said Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's recent visit to Spain contributed to strengthening the relations with friendly nations.

The Prime Minister returned home on Friday after participating in the 'Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) of the United Nations' held in Seville of Spain from June 30 to July 3. He was invited by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the Conference.

On the sidelines of the event, PM Oli had engaged in several high-level meetings.

Speaking at a press meet held at the VVIP Lounge of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) following the arrival of the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai said the visit was successful in further strengthening Nepal and the United Nations relations and collaboration. The high-level meetings that the Prime Minister held on the sidelines contributed to further consolidating the bilateral relations with Estonia, Spain, Portugal and Egypt and with the UN, the Foreign Secretary argued.

According to him, the Prime Minister's participation and active engagement in the conference helped enhance Nepal's image on the international stage. As the Chair of the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Nepal presented its views during the Conference, calling for international support for the country's sustainable development and graduation to a middle-income country, he added.

The interaction that the Prime Minister held with business community in Spain and overseas is expected to be helpful in promoting foreign investment in Nepal, according to the Foreign Secretary.

Similarly, during his visit with the Egyptian counterpart, the Prime Minister thanked Egypt for his attempts so far for the release of Bipin Joshi, the Nepali citizen taken hostage by Hamas, urging for the continuity of such efforts until the goal is achieved.

During his interactions with the Spain's business community organised by the Nepali Embassy in Madrid, the Prime Minister called on them to explore investment opportunities in Nepal's hydropower, tourism, agricultural and IT sectors. At the high-level event relating to the LDCs, the Prime Minister said that poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and trade deficits, and the compulsion to allocate huge chunk of budgets for debt clearance are among the problems of these nations, hindering efforts to address the citizen's needs for education, health and other basic facilities.

On the occasion, the Prime Minister also called for substantive measures to implement the commitments expressed during the Conference and for the enforcement of practical action plans to bridge the financial gap.

In response to a media query, the Foreign Secretary said, "The international community has a significant goodwill towards Nepal. Obviously, the European nations hold deeper and strong goodwill towards Nepal, and Nepal has been using such visits and international platforms to channelize that goodwill towards enhancing Nepal’s image internationally and achieving economic prosperity.”

The Foreign Secretary added that Nepal holds a significant position among the 46 LDCs as its Chair. "The Conference that takes place once in a decade focused on mobilizing financial support to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Nepal was successful in amplifying its voice toward that end." (RSS)

TRN Online

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