Chinese President likely to visit Nepal next year

Kathmandu [Nepal], December 19 (ANI): Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Nepal in March.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had listed Nepal among the countries that the Chinese president would visit in 2018 and also started ground work for his visit to Nepal, The Himalayan Times quoted sources, as saying.

According to the sources, President XI would start visiting foreign countries in March after assuming his second presidency in February next year.

President Xi's expected visit to Kathmandu last year was reportedly cancelled due to the change of government in Nepal.

Sources said that the Left Alliance's victory in the recently concluded provincial and parliamentary elections would have a symbolic significance for President Xi's visit and the win is also being seen as victory of a China-friendly force .

The red flags have gone high in Nepal, denoting rise of the communist government in the Himalayan nation which witnessed a series of government changes over a period of time.

The Left Alliance of Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC), have secured a majority in the Parliament in recently concluded polls and are poised to lead the next government which is expected to be formed in January next year.

As per the final results of the election under the First Past The Post system (FPTP) system, the Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) has won 80 seats in the Federal Parliament and 166 in the Provincial Assemblies.

The ally of the Left alliance, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) has stood second as per the concluded vote count with winning 36 Parliamentary seats and 73 Provincial seats. (ANI)