Nepal PM Prachanda To Visit Qatar This Week On His First Overseas Trip

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" will visit Qatar later this week on his first official foreign trip since assuming office two months ago.  
     
Prachanda will be leading a Nepalese delegation to Doha where he will participate in the fifth conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDC), according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  
     
The delegation will leave for Qatar on March 3 and return three days later, it said.  While in Doha, Prachanda will participate in a plethora of programmes organised by the UN on the sidelines of the conference, My Republica newspaper reported.  
     
Prime Minister Prachanda will also be making the country's statement in the general debate of the conference, the report said.  Prachanda will also address a conference organised by Malawi, the chair of the LDCs, on March 4, it said.  
     
His trip to Doha comes at a time when his hold on power is increasingly under threat.  
     
On Saturday, eight parties, including Prachanda's CPN-Maoist Centre, backed the senior leader of the principal opposition party Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Paudel as the next president.  
     
The development may bring down the fragile two-month-old government of Prachanda and could plunge Nepal once again into political turmoil.  
     
Prachanda, the 68-year-old was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the third time on December 26 last year after he dramatically walked out of the pre-poll alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joined hands with opposition leader Oli.
     
Prachanda previously said he will travel to India on his first foreign visit.  
     
Though the official date of his visit is yet to be announced, boosting bilateral ties and talks on trade, energy, agriculture, culture, and air service will prominently feature in these talks, according to the government-run Gorkhapatra newspaper.