Nepal

Katmandou, 25 September 2026. As the United Nations General Assembly gathered dozens of heads of state in New York this week, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping instead chose to meet in Washington on Thursday, 24 September, for a summit that the Nepalese press considers as spectacular as it is devoid of concrete results. The Kathmandu Post talks about a "diplomatic split-screen" that raises an existential question for the UN: does the organisation, born after the calamity of the two world wars, still count? Richard Gowan, from the International Crisis Group, quoted by the daily, observes: "It's quite notable that Xi Jinping comes to Washington the same week as the General Assembly, without feeling embarrassed about not going to New York." Many, he adds, will wonder "where the real centre of decision-making is".

The protocol pomp dominated the meeting: red carpet, 21-gun salute upon Xi's and his wife Peng Liyuan's arrival on Wednesday, 23 September, at Andrews Base, followed by a state dinner mixing sesame-striped bars and big tech names. Trump told his guest that they "had never gotten along better", before showing him around the construction site of his new ballroom and the brand-new heliport built within the White House enclosure. Outside, protesters chanted "China out of Hong Kong", audible even on the steps where the two presidents posed.

In substance, nothing has moved: neither on Taiwan, nor on artificial intelligence, nor on trade, nor on the war with Iran, notes the Kathmandu Post. The trade truce was simply extended by two months on Wednesday, postponing a broader agreement, reports Online Khabar. Xi called on the two countries to "act like responsible great powers" and to find "a new way to get along", evoking a "common understanding" serving as a "new strategic orientation", without further details. Trump, for his part, had announced on Truth Social that "super-intelligence" would be the central topic, specifying that Washington and Beijing preferred to keep the existing regulatory framework rather than negotiating new multilateral obligations.

For Katmandou, a UN member whose diplomacy largely depends on multilateralism, the choice of the two capitals to handle world affairs in a tête-à-tête, far from Turtle Bay, illustrates a shift in power that the local press observes with more concern than satisfaction.