President Reagan's Remark at arrival ceremony for king birendra of Nepal on December 7,1983

President Reagan has invited King Birendra of Nepal to pay a state visit to the United States this fall, the White House announced Wednesday.

Deputy White House press secretary Larry Speakes said the ruler of the Himalyan kingdom accepted the invitation and will meet with Reagan in Washington.
Nepalese officials said Queen Aishwarya will accompany him.

Birendra, 37, the only Hindu king in the world and one of the last reigning absolute monarchs, was educated at England's Eaton School and studied business administration at Harvard. He also spent a year at Tokyo University in Japan.

He became king at the death of his father King Mahendra in 1972, and is active in the Non-Aligned Movement.

The tiny landlocked mountain kingdom is nestled between India and China.

The monarch of the Georgia-sized nation of 14 million people is the 10th ruler of the Phah Dynasty founded in the 1700s when Himalayan principalities were unified into what is now Nepal.
Nepal is one of the world's poorest nations. It relies heavily on foreign exchange from travelers seeking to catch a glimpse of Mount Everest and mountain climbers.

The United States gave $15 million in foreign aid to Nepal in 1982.
President Reagan hailed King Birendra of Nepal today as a champion of peace and expressed sympathy about problems he is encountering in trying to improve the quality of life in his Himalayan kingdom.

Welcoming King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya at the beginning of a two- week visit to the United States, Mr. Reagan praised the King for condemning the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and volunteering military forces for United Nations peacekeeping missions.