China's top legislator holds talks with Nepal Parliament speaker

Beijing [China], April 10 (ANI): Amid a thaw in ties between Beijing and Kathmandu, China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Friday held talks with Nepal's Parliament speaker Agni Sapkota and discussed bilateral relations.
The meeting comes at a time when the relationship between Nepal and China is on the decline after the Nepalese parliament's ratification of the Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) earlier in March, as well as the visit of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India earlier this month.
Li, who is the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said that China stands ready to work with Nepal to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries to benefit both the nations and their peoples, Xinhua reported.
Li also called on the two countries to further enhance mutual political trust, maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges and firmly support each other's core interests and major concerns.
The Chinese legislator further called on China and Nepal to jointly build the Belt and Road to a high-quality standard, deepen cooperation on trade and investment, industrial parks, energy and electricity, ports and clearance.
Notably, Nepal and China failed to reach an agreement on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Nepal last month with the Himalayan country toughening its stand against Chinese loans.
Sapkota extended gratefulness for China's assistance to Nepal in several areas. He further said that the Nepali parliament stands ready to work with the NPC to enhance friendly exchanges and promote further development of bilateral relations. (ANI)