With the announcement of a public holiday by the government, Kathmandu is ready to greet Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, on Tuesday. Numerous social media users have attacked the administration for declaring a holiday that wasn’t needed.Nonetheless, the government has stood by its choice. Such a holiday, according to a top Ministry of Home Affairs official, is consistent with a custom that Nepal has been celebrating for a number of years.At the invitation of President Ramchandra Paudel, the Emir of Qatar is paying a State Visit to Nepal and on this occasion, as per the Cabinet decision, a public holiday has been announced for Tuesday throughout the country,” a notice issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs reads.
After the President receives the emir at Kathmandu airport, the emir will later call on President Paudel at the President’s Office. The two leaders will then head to Hotel Soaltee for a state banquet hosted by the President in honour of the state guest.The emir’s delegation will have 80 members including 10 incumbent ministers. Several members of the Qatari security team are already in Kathmandu and are staying at two hotels where two major functions are being held, according to a senior security official.This will be the first high-level visit to Nepal from the Gulf nation, which hosts approximately 400,000 Nepali migrant workers, and the government has accordingly decided to accord him high honour as per the set protocol, said the officials.
President Paudel and the emir will hold talks on Tuesday evening, followed by a state banquet.Announcing the visit on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will lead the Nepali delegation in the bilateral talks. The prime minister will host a luncheon in honour of the emir and the visiting delegation on Wednesday. After this the two countries will sign several memorandums of understanding.“Initially, we proposed to sign around nine to ten agreements, but they have been trimmed down to five,” spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amrit Rai, told the Post.
On Monday, the Cabinet approved two memorandums of understanding related to higher education and scientific research—a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of youth and sports, and another on higher education and scientific research. Three other MoUs are in other fields. Besides signing agreements, Nepal is also gifting two elephants to the Qatar emir.“The visit will open more vistas of cooperation between the two sides. We hope that after the visit, more tourists will come to visit Nepal. The visit of the Emir of Qatar will for sure positively impact our tourism sector. During the talks, more issues of mutual interest will be discussed,” said Rai.
According to the government officials privy to the visit, the Nepali side will raise the issues and plights of Nepali workers in Qatar, request the signing of a new labour agreement, and provision of a comprehensive insurance coverage for Nepali migrant workers in the Gulf nation. Currently, Qatar provides insurance for Nepali migrant workers only during work hours, and we will make a case for extending this coverage round-the-clock, a senior official at the Ministry of Labour told the Post.Early on Monday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a press statement urging Bangladesh (where the Emir went first) and Nepal “to prioritise labour protections for migrant workers” during Al-Thani’s visit.
“It is important for Qatar, Bangladesh, and Nepal to go beyond exchanging diplomatic pleasantries over their longstanding labour ties and seize this moment to publicly commit to concrete, enforceable protections that address the serious abuses that migrant workers in Qatar continue to face,” the statement quoted Michael Page, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, as saying. During the delegation-level talks in Kathmandu, Prime Minister Dahal will request the Qatari delegation to invest in various sectors like hydropower, infrastructure and state-of-the-art stadiums in Nepal.
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