PM Oli to Visit China for SCO Summit, V-Day Events

Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli will travel to China from August 30 to September 3 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit and events marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Wednesday, August 27.

Oli, accompanied by First Lady Radhika Shakya, is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin and address the SCO Plus Summit on September 1. He is also expected to hold talks with several other world leaders on the sidelines. On September 2, the Prime Minister will meet Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing, before joining commemorative events in the capital on September 3.

At the invitation of President Xi, leaders from 26 countries will attend China’s V-Day celebrations in Beijing, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei announced Thursday, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

“China will stage a massive military parade on Sept. 3 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” Xinhua reported.

Foreign leaders invited to attend the commemorations include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Miguel Diaz-Canel, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuban president, and Min Aung Hlaing, acting president of Myanmar, the report added.

Oli’s delegation will include Minister for Education, Science and Technology Raghuji Pant, Ministry for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Badri Prasad Pandey, PM’s Economic Adviser Yuba Raj Khatiwada among other lawmakers and senior officials.

The Prime Minister will return home on September 3, the ministry said.

(With inputs from Xinhua)