Nepal-China Protocol to Transit and Transport Agreement to be signed in July: Oli

Nepal and China will sign the Protocol to Transit and Transport Agreement next month, Prime Minister K P Sharma said today, two years after the two countries had initiated the "historic" deal that would improve commutation and overseas trade for the land-locked nation.

Oli, who returned from his six-day China visit recently, also blamed the "reluctance" of the previous two governments in following up on the trade and transit agreement.

Briefing the House of Representatives about his visit to China, the prime minister said that officials from both sides will sit together in July to finalise the protocol.

"The agreement I had singed had gathered dust as I became prime minister for the second time," he told the House informing about the delays in signing the protocol.

Highlighting the achievements of his China visit, he said 22 deals - 13 at the government level and nine with the private sector - were reached with China during his entourage.

He also described the agreement on railway connectivity as "historic, and most important in bringing prosperity" to Nepal.

However, there was no mention about the time frame and source of funding in the railway pact.

Earlier in the day, Oli inaugurated the reconstructed 20th-century Gaddi Baithak at Hanumandhoka Durbar square, which had suffered damages in the 2015 earqthquakes.

Oli told the gathering at the historic shrine that Nepal had entered into a new era with the promulgation of constitution (in 2015) through Constituent Assembly.

"Now the journey towards development and prosperity has begun following the completion of political struggles," the prime minister was quoted as saying in Rastriya Samachar Samiti.

He also thanked the US government for extending assistance in reconstruction work of the Gaddi Baithak, situated in the heart of Kathmandu.