Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, who is in New York, USA, to participate in the United Nations General Assembly, on Wednesday held a brief meeting with US President Barrack Obama.

Mahat is leading the Nepali delegation to the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which kicked off at UN Headquarters in New York on 13 September, 2016. Mahat met Obama during the welcome to the permanent representative to UN.

During the meeting, Obama expressed his happiness over Nepal’s progress in peace and development. In response, Mahat expressed his gratitude to the US president for his congratulatory message to Nepal on the occasion of its constitution day, Nepali officials based in New York said.

Likewise, Mahat met his US counterpart John Kerry and discussed Nepal-US relations. Kerry reportedly said that he had not been able to visit Nepal despite his desire for the same.

Minister Mahat is accompanied by his wife, lawmaker Mohan Bahadur Basnet, Chief Secretary Somlal Subedi, Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi, and Nepal’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Durga Prasad Bhattarai, among other officials.