Kathmandu, April 2
The French Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly hosted an official function to mark and celebrate the 70thanniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between Nepal and France, on Saturday.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali represented the Government of Nepal on the occasion. Goodwill Ambassador for the 70th anniversary celebrations Shrinkhala Khatiwada, senior officials from the Government of Nepal, members of the diplomatic community, civil society and media were also present at the event.
In their remarks, Ambassador François-Xavier Léger and the Goodwill Ambassador highlighted how the Nepal- France relations were deeply rooted in the people-to-people ties.
Similarly Minister Gyawali also stressed on the cultural contacts and people-to-people relations which are “nurtured by mutual love and goodwill prevalent at the grass root level of our societies.” He also talked about the collaboration between the two countries at multilateral forums.
The second part of the event was a musical performance by Singhini Consort with Franck Bernède on cello, Santosh Bhakta Shrestha on esraj and Bidur Rajkarnikar on tabla. The musical pieces featured Frank in a solo performance as well as in a musical collaboration with Santosh and Bidur who incorporated esraj and tabla in this musical journey that took the audience through time.
The musical performance was organised to illustrate one of the major facets of Nepal-France relationship: one that is based on people-to-people contacts and partnerships, said the embassy in a statement.
