– Prem Sagar Poudel
Nepal’s newly appointed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli like that of his previous premiership is in a mood to deepen ties with China to explore more options to change the current India locked status of his country Nepal. This will surely provide Oli government to have more leverage while dealing with Delhi.
Oli was appointed to the top executive post in accordance with Article 76 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal.
Earlier, the left alliance endorsed Oli’s bid for premiership through correspondence to President Bhandari. The left alliance comprising the UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre have a comfortable majority in the 275-member House of Representatives, with the largest party, UML having 121 seats and the CPN-MC 53.
PM Oli in one of his recent interviews has told that his goverment will review all the special treaties and provisons that Nepal has with India which has always been hurdle for smooth relations between the two countries.
“Becasue of open border we have very good connectivity with India. My government will further focus on connectivity with India but at the same time high time has come for us not to forget that we have two neighbours and both are equally important for our prosperity. I mean we are absolutely in a no mood to depend only on one country or just have one option,” Oli has said.
After comfortable victory of left alliance in recent election, till the date Oli assumed PM office, it is already two times that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated PM Oli and has expressed his commitment for full support to his government.
Indian PM Modi also sent External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as his special envoy to convey his goodwill message to PM Oli and all Nepalis people.
Swaraj two-day ‘goodwill’ visit had taken place at a time when Nepal was preparing to form a new government under the left alliance.
Dr. Khadga KC, an international relation expert, while giving interview to Danfe TV, just a couple of hours before Swaraj landed, had criticized this so-called special ‘goodwill’ visit by Indian side. “The host country has not invited and also their is no any concrete agenda to discuss. Also, the new govt is yet to come in power,” KC told.
After getting one after another green signal from southern neighbour, PM Oli is now of opinion that during his previous tenure as top executive post of nation due to some conservative mindset elements in the Indian establishment side, a misunderstanding had casused. But this time Indian leaders have assured him that such blunder won’t repeat in future and they will respect unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Nepal in the days to come.
It has been heard that PM Oli, out of many matters to discuss with India, one will be regarding the Nepalese serving in the Indian Army. “A certain level of correction is needed about India side recruiting Nepali youths to server under Gurkha Rifles in Indian Army,” Oli said.
There is also high chance that Oli cabinet may revive the China-backed $2.5 billion Budhi Gandaki Hydropower project which was scrapped by the previous PM Sher Bahadur Deuba led government citing irregularities.
At present, the expectation is high in China from Oli’s government as he signed nearly one dozen agreements including the popular Transit Treaty with Beijing to end Indian monopoly in trade during his first primership in 2015.
China has been investing heavily in Nepal in many important sectors. This has gradually decreased India’s influence and has put India on red alert. In Nepal Investment Summit held in Kathmandu in March of last year, China alone had pledged to invest more that $8 billion dollar.
The Chinese side is now working to extend the Qinghai-Tibet railway from Shigatze to Kyirong of Tibet by 2020 and is willing to continue this railway track to Kathmandu. As said by Chinese railway experts by 2022, it is possible to build Kyirong-Kathmandu railway link. Kyirong is about 25km from Nepal’s Rasuwagadhi border point, which is 150km distance from capital city Kathmandu.
Not only Oli government but entire Nepalis people want to get their nation’s capital connected by railway from Chinese side. The newly fomred Oli government has already started to work in this direction.
“If Nepal can connect this railway network to our east-west rail project, it can revolutinize China-India trade, with Nepal in the middle,” quots Chinese newspaper South China Morninig Post.
Also, the three roads connecting China and Nepal are under construction which is estimated to get completed in next two years.
(President, Nepal-China Mutual Co-operation Society)
