Nepal and Equatorial Guinea established formal bilateral diplomatic relations today. Ambassador Mr. Amrit Bahadur Rai, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations, and Ambassador Mr. Anatolio Ndong Mba, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea to the United Nations, signed a Joint Communiqué to this effect at a brief ceremony in New York this afternoon.

They also signed today a joint letter informing the United Nations Secretary-General, His Excellency Antonio Guterres, about this development.

On the occasion, the two Ambassadors noted that it was a historic day towards bringing the two countries closer bilaterally and also exchanged views on various measures to deepen and expand the scope of mutual cooperation in the future. The two countries are already working closely at the United Nations and other multilateral forums.

Equatorial Guinea is on the west coast of Central Africa near both the equator and the Gulf of Guinea. The country consists of a mainland territory, Río Muni, which is bordered by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the east and south.

Equatorial Guinea has over 1.2 million people in an area of about 28000 square kilometers, with Malabo as its capital. With phenomenal advances in its economy and governance in the past few years, with per capita income over $10, 000, the country graduated from LDC status in 2017 by fulfilling income-only criterion.

Both Nepal and Equatorial Guinea are members of the Group of 77 as well as the Non-Aligned Movement. Equatorial Guinea is currently a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

With the efforts of the Government of Nepal to make the country's bilateral diplomatic relations as universal as possible, the number of countries having direct diplomatic ties with Nepal has now reached 165.