Chinese Defence Minister Gen Wei Fenghe has suspended his visit to Dhaka scheduled this week.

"The visit will take place at a mutually convenient date later on. Suspension of the Chinese minister's visit is not something extraordinary. This can happen," a foreign ministry official told The Daily Star yesterday.

Asked about the agenda of Wei Fenghe's visit, the official said Dhaka and Beijing were not to that level where agendas were specified. However, defence cooperation is generally the issue as Bangladesh buys major military hardware from China, he said.

The Chinese minister visited Nepal on Sunday, the highest level visit from China since Chinese President Xi Jinping had gone there in October last year on a two-day visit, the Kathmandu Post reported.

During his daylong stay in Kathmandu, Wei called on Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, paid a courtesy call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari and held talks with Chief of the Nepal Army, General Purna Chandra Thapa.

The high-level visit from China, two days after Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla's Nepal visit that concluded on Friday, comes at a time when ruling Nepal Communist Party is mired in an internal conflict.

Quoting sources, the Kathmandu Post reported, Wei would visit Bangladesh and Pakistan after completing his tour of Nepal.

Bangladesh foreign ministry sources said it was not confirmed whether the Chinese minister's visit to Dhaka would take place immediately after his Nepal visit.

The sources could not say for sure if the suspension of Wei's visit was related to the fact that Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen were Covid-19 positive.