Nepali PM to visit China in early December: spokeswoman

Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli will pay an official visit to China from December 2 to 5 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman announced on Friday.

"Prime Minister Oli has visited China twice as Nepali Prime Minister, making important contributions to the development of China-Nepal relations. During his upcoming visit to China, President Xi Jinping will meet with Prime Minister Oli, while Premier Li Qiang and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Zhao Leji will hold talks and meet with him separately. The leaders of both countries will have in-depth exchanges of views on deepening the traditional China-Nepal friendship, expanding cooperation in jointly building the Belt and Road and in various other fields, as well as on international and regional issues of mutual concern," said Mao Ning, the spokeswoman, at a press conference in Beijing.

"China and Nepal are traditional friendly neighbors connected by mountains and rivers. Over the 69 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, no matter how the international or regional situations have evolved, bilateral relationship has remained healthy and stable, making this relationship a good example of equality and win-win cooperation between countries of different sizes. In 2019, President Xi Jinping made a historic state visit to Nepal, elevating the relationship to a strategic partnership of cooperation featuring ever-lasting friendship for development and prosperity. In recent years, both sides have earnestly implemented the important consensus reached by top leaders of the two countries, achieving fruitful results in China-Nepal relations," she said.

"China, taking Prime Minister Oli's visit as an opportunity, is willing to work with Nepal to enhance strategic mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and continue promote development of the China-Nepal strategic cooperative partnership toward the achievement of new successes," said the spokeswoman.

Nepali PM to visit China in early December: spokeswoman

Japanese experts said that the ruling coalition of the country will face considerable challenges and uncertainties in future political and economic governance as it loses majority in the lower house. 

Japan's Diet convened for an extraordinary session on Thursday. The focus will be on reviewing the supplementary budget for fiscal year 2024 and discussions on amending the Political Funds Control Act.

The session will be the first full-fledged debate since the governing coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito Party lost their majority in last month's lower house election.

Shozaburo Sakai, former president of Chuo University, a leading Japanese university in Tokyo, said as a minority government, the ruling coalition will face great challenges in promoting political and economic reforms.

"The Ishiba administration, which is in power as a minority, now relies most on winning the support of public opinion. Because the administration has become a minority in the lower house, it may face a challenge of a no-confidence motion at any time. If a no-confidence motion is proposed [by the opposition party], the minority government might be overthrown at any time," he said. 

Sakai said that the current domestic prices in Japan has continued to rise, the cost of living for the people continues to rise, and raising the policy interest rate and curbing the depreciation of the yen are direct means to deal with rising prices. 

However, under the influence of the previous long-term negative interest rate policy, the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan depends on bank loans, and the interest rate hikes are fatal to these enterprises, according to Sakai. 

"The Ishiba administration needs to consider the cost of living of the people, so in order to curb price increases, it needs to guide the yen to appreciate steadily. However, if the yen is guided to appreciate, small and medium-sized enterprises will be in trouble and may even go bankrupt, which creates a difficult situation," he said. 

Japan's ruling coalition to face multiple governing challenges: expert