Himal Press 
This combo photo shows portraits of (from left) Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Minister for Foreign Affairs Shishir Khanal and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
KATHMANDU: Minister for Foreign Affairs Shishir Khanal is embarking on an official visit to China immediately after returning from his ongoing visit to India.
Foreign ministry sources say Khanal will leave for Beijing on June 13 and return home on June 17.
The foreign minister reached New Delhi on Friday afternoon for a three-day visit to the southern neighbor. He will hold formal talks with his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, on Saturday.
Khanal had previously met Jaishankar during the Indian Ocean Summit in Mauritius in the second week of April. Although a delegation from the Indian foreign ministry was scheduled to visit Nepal before Khanal’s visit, it was later canceled.
Minister Khanal is currently in New Delhi, just as his party president, Rabi Lamichhane, upon his return from a five-day visit to India, claimed that ties with India will continue to improve and boundary disputes will be resolved. What Khanal achieves during his stay in the Indian capital will become clearer following Saturday’s discussions. He will wrap up his visit to India and return home on Sunday.
The foreign minister is undertaking the visit to China at the invitation of his counterpart Wang Yi. Bhrigu Dhungana, head of the North-East Asia Division, which oversees Chinese affairs, and Madhusudan Bhattarai, Under Secretary of the Minister’s Secretariat, will also accompany Khanal to Beijing.
The Beijing trip was finalized before Khanal departed for New Delhi on Friday. Internal briefings within the ministry suggested that this visit demonstrates Nepal’s ongoing practice of a traditionally balanced diplomatic approach.
Discussions in India are expected to focus on bilateral relations, restoring political trust, trade, transit, energy, and people-to-people ties. Similar discussions are slated to take place with the northern neighbor as well.
A high-ranking foreign ministry official told Himal Press that if everything goes according to plan, the minister will travel to Beijing via Hong Kong. According to the official, talks with the Chinese government will also cover the status of Nepali politicians and several business figures currently residing in Hong Kong under Chinese protection. Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his spouse Arzu Deuba, as well as individuals from more than two dozen major business houses, are believed to be in Hong Kong. Some of them have recently returned to Nepal, feeling a bit more reassured about the situation. Issues like infrastructure development, reducing the trade deficit, connectivity, cross-border movement, tourism revival, and projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are expected to be discussed during Khanal’s China visit.
Analysts view Khanal’s proposed trip to China, just a week after his visit to India, as a continuation of Nepal’s policy to engage and expand relations with both neighbors in a parallel manner. Foreign policy experts say high-level visits of this nature carry heightened symbolic and strategic importance in light of rising geopolitical competition in recent years.
The back-to-back visits send a clear signal that Kathmandu is pursuing a strategy of cooperation rather than maintaining proximity with one neighbor and distance from the other. Following up an Indian visit with a trip to China is seen not just as a diplomatic balancing act, but as an attempt by Nepal to maintain its strategic autonomy.
As China looks to revitalize its political and economic engagements with Nepal, this visit is being viewed as an opportunity to inject fresh momentum into bilateral relations.
