Press Briefing
by the Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba
Following the Bilateral Meeting with the Right Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of
New Zealand
(Kathmandu, 28 May 2025)
Right Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand
His Excellency the Ambassador of New Zealand to Nepal
Distinguished delegates
Friends from Media
Namaskar and Good evening!
It is my distinct honour and privilege to stand and speak in front of you following a productive and fruitful bilateral meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand Right Honourable Winston Peters.
I take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to Rt. Hon. Peters for undertaking an official visit to Nepal. It is the first ever visit at the level of the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of New Zealand to Nepal.
Today’s meeting, therefore, is an important step in further strengthening the longstanding friendship and cooperation between Nepal and New Zealand.
The relationship between Nepal and New Zealand has been marked by cordiality and friendship. Ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1961, we have been enjoying excellent bilateral relations based on goodwill, mutual trust and cooperation.
Dear Friends,
I have the pleasure to share with you all that we had a free, frank and in-depth discussions on the overall gamut of bilateral relations between Nepal and New Zealand.
We recalled, with deep respect, the contribution of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in initiating and elevating Nepal-New Zealand relations through their ascendance to the Mt. Everest and continued subsequent activities that brought our two countries and peoples closer.
Our discussions were focused on elevating our close, cordial and longstanding relations to a new height through meaningful cooperation in several areas including agriculture, trade, investment, tourism, education and multilateral engagements.
We have agreed to explore avenues to increase our bilateral trade volume and realised the need for more economic engagements.
We underlined the importance of cooperation in the field of tourism as tourism is an important pillar of economy in both the countries. We underscored the need to share and exchange our experience, knowledge and expertise in this field.
We both appreciated the role played by the Nepali diaspora in New Zealand in bringing two countries and peoples closer and underlined the importance of people-to-people connections for sound and sustainable bilateral relations between the countries.
Enhancing cooperation on multilateral platforms was another area of discussion during the meeting. We laid emphasis on further strengthening our cooperation through multilateral forums including the UN on various global issues such as climate change, sustainable development and multilateralism.
We reiterated our common position that global cooperation is imperative in addressing the global challenges. Our shared interests in peace, stability, and sustainable development will continue to guide our cooperation in multilateral engagements.
We underscored the significance of regular exchange of high-level visits and expressed our commitment to maintain the momentum created in recent years.
We will continue to build on the progress made in today’s meeting. I am confident that the friendship and partnership between Nepal and New Zealand will grow stronger in the years ahead.
We look forward to working together to further strengthening our bilateral ties.
Thank you
