On August 11, 2021, Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Liu Jinsong met with Nepalese Ambassador to China Mahendra Bahadur Pandey. Both sides exchanged views on bilateral relations, pragmatic cooperation and other topics amicably and friendly.

Liu Jinsong said, China and Nepal were historically connected by the ancient Silk Road. In the Tang Dynasty, influential Buddhist monk Xuanzang and diplomat Wang Xuance traveled to your country to spread friendship. Since 2017, China and Nepal have made joint contributions to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), continuing the fine tradition of good-neighborliness and connectivity between the two countries. As a member of a delegation, I flew to your country at the end of 2019, and was deeply moved by the grand reception that crowds of people in Kathmandu, singing and dancing, warmly welcomed President Xi Jinping. Last year, the two heads of state jointly announced the new height of Mount Qomolangma, marking a new height of friendship between the two countries and also giving voice to the enduring friendship between China and Nepal and peace on the two countries' borders. In the first half of this year, China and Nepal overcame the disruptions of the pandemic, and increased bilateral trade volume by 75 percent year-on-year, which is congratulatory. I admire and appreciate that you, the Ambassador, who is already in your 70s, have written many articles, received interviews from the media, often visited cities and provinces, actively promoted China-Nepal friendship, done the most you could for various cooperative projects, and made every effort to boost bilateral relations. As you said, "there is something to learn from almost everybody, and knowledge is found everywhere". China is willing to treat each other as equals with Nepal, learn from each other, deepen cooperation in the pandemic battle, economy and trade, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges and other fields, firmly safeguard each other's core interests, actively implement the consensus reached during President Xi Jinping's visit to your country, and push the two countries' cooperation under the BRI for steady progress, so as to bring real benefits to the two peoples.

Pandey said, Nepal sincerely thanked China for providing it with supplies and vaccines at a critical moment in the fight against COVID-19, lauded the stance of China as a responsible major country that consistently matches words with action and is eager to meet the urgent needs of others, as well as China's outstanding contributions to the international COVID-19 response, and expressed willingness to deepen anti-pandemic cooperation with China. Pandey noted, Nepal's foreign policy will not be affected by political changes, and Nepal firmly adheres to the one-China principle and will never allow any force to conduct anti-China separatist activities on its territory. The Nepalese side is willing to work with the Chinese side to implement the consensus of the two heads of state, advance the major cooperation projects under the BRI, steadily promote the construction of the China-Nepal Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network, and give full play to the effectiveness of the two countries' cooperation mechanisms in various fields.