Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang on Thursday met with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Nepal Bishnu Prasad Paudel in Beijing, with both sides pledging to enhance cooperation across the board.
Ding, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said China and Nepal are friendly neighbors connected by mountains and rivers, setting a fine example of equality and mutual benefits between countries of different sizes. During Chinese President Xi Jinping's historic visit to Nepal in 2019, the two countries elevated their bilateral relations to a strategic cooperative partnership featuring everlasting friendship for development and prosperity, Ding said.
He said China is willing to work with Nepal, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, to deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen public support for friendship, and push China-Nepal relations to a higher level.
For his part, Paudel said Nepal firmly adheres to the one-China principle and supports China in safeguarding its core interests.
His country looks to strengthen exchanges of governance experience with China and deepen practical cooperation in various fields, he said.
Chinese vice premier meets Nepali deputy PM on deepening cooperation
The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip had risen to 41,534, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Thursday.
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli military killed 39 people and wounded 86 others, bringing the total number of deaths and injuries respectively to 41,534 and 96,092 since the latest conflict erupted in early October 2023.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza, said that the Israeli army on Thursday conducted an airstrike on a school sheltering displaced persons in northern Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least 15 people, including women and children, and injuring dozens of others.
Palestinian security sources said that Israeli aircraft bombed the al-Faluja school west of the Jabalia refugee camp with at least one missile.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on the same day that the Israeli Air Force conducted a precise strike on militants operating in a command and control center inside a compound that previously served as the al-Faluja school.
In addition, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported that the Israeli army on Thursday launched a drone attack on southern Gaza's Rafah city, killing two people.
Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza rises to 41,534: health authorities
