April 19: The fourth meeting of Nepal-Japan Bilateral Consultation Mechanism was held in Tokyo, the capital of Japan on Tuesday. During the meeting, the two sides took stock of all aspects of bilateral relations and exchanged views on further promoting cooperation between the two countries, the Embassy of Nepal in Tokyo stated in a press statement.    
While expressing satisfaction over the existing excellent state of bilateral relations between the two countries, both sides placed high importance on exchange of high-level visits in order to further strengthen the bilateral relations.    
The two sides discussed various ways of enhancing cooperation in the areas of trade , tourism, investment, agriculture, waste and disaster management, foreign employment as well as culture and people-to-people ties. The Nepali side shared about the country's graduation from the LDC status in 2026 and requested for the continuation of support of the Government of Japan in terms of grant assistance and concessional loans. The Japanese side assured of the continued cooperation to Nepal for its graduation from the LDC status and thereafter within the framework of its cooperation policy.    
Joint-Secretary and the Head of North East Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lok Bahadur Thapa and Director-General of Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Arima Yutaka led their respective delegations to the meeting.    
The delegation of the Nepali side consisted of the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal and the Embassy of Nepal in Tokyo and the Japanese delegation included the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.    
Prior to the meeting, Joint-Secretary Thapa paid a courtesy call on the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Takei Shunsuke at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. -- RSS