This has been a hectic year for Nepal's Foreign Ministry. It hosted international conferences, including the 18th SAARC Summit and handled a number of high level visits by dignitaries than it did for any year in the past.

Headed by Minister Mahedra Bahadur Pandey, the Foreign Ministry has a strong team of seasoned diplomats ,which includes acting foreign secretary Shanker Das Bairagi. The team is now preparing for the visit of the Chinese foreign minister, who is coming for a 3-day official visit 25-27.

The ministry has already played a major role in hosting the SAARC Summit successfully, arranging for the hospitality of the heads of state and government of South Asia, and handled the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narnedra Modi and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj. Working with the National Planning Commission, it also hosted a ministerial meeting of Least Developed Countries of Asia and Pacific Region recently.

The Foreign Ministry started the year's activities with the announcement of holding the SAARC summit in Nepal. At the end of the year, the ministry is preparing for another important visit, that is, by a foreign minister from Nepal's northern neighbor.

Although the ministry is yet to promote current acting secretary Bairagi to level of a confirmed secretary and propose the appointment of political appointees in major countries, including India, UK and USA, the ministry has already appointed six career ambassadors to head six Nepalese diplomatic missions abroad.

With the foreign ministry's former carrier diplomat Dr. Dinesh Bhattarai as the Foreign Affairs advisor of Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, coordination between the two institutions has been working fine.

As it has handled all previous high level meetings with professional and diplomatic skills, the ministry is expected to handle another important visit of Chinese foreign minister at the end of year equally well.