Abbasi meets Nepal’s Oli, discusses Saarc

KATHMANDU: Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi me this Nepali counterpart KP Sharma Oli on Monday and discussed bilateral relations and ways to revive the Saarc process.

The visiting pakistani premier said he was positive about taking forward the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) process.

Abbasi congratulated Oli for being appointed the new prime minister of Nepal after the recent elections, and extended an invitation to him to visit Pakistan, sources said. Oli hosted a dinner in honour of Abbasi.

Abbasi, who is in Nepal on a two-day visit at the invitation of Oli, was received by finance minister Yuvaraj Khatiwada at the Tribhuwan International Airport. He was accorded the guard of honour at Army Pavilion at Tundikhel Ground in the presence of Prime Minister Oli.

Abbasi is the first high level foreign leader to visit Nepal after Oli assumed office last month.

He will also call on President Bidyadevi Bhandari at her offical residence Sheetal Niwas on Tuesday and will meet other top officials of Nepal.

This is the first official bilateral visit by any Pakistani prime minister to Nepal after a gap of 24 years. In 1994, the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto travelled to Nepal on a bilateral visit.

Former premier Nawaz Sharif visited Nepal to attend the 18th SAARC Summit in 2014.

The 19th SAARC Summit, scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016, was cancelled after India’s boycott citing Pakistan’s involvement in the Uri terror attack.