Highlights
- Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is preparing to give a big blow to China before his visit to India.
- Sher Bahadur Deuba insists on ratifying America’s Millennium Challenge Corporation
- He said that the 500 million US dollar program is not against the national interest of Nepal.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is preparing to give a big blow to China in the country just before his visit to India. Sher Bahadur Deuba has insisted on ratifying the Millennium Challenge Corporation of America. He said that the 500 million US dollar program is not against the national interest of Nepal. Deuba’s statement comes at a time when China is trying hard to implement the Belt and Road project in Nepal, which has become a debt trap. Also strongly opposing America’s MCC program.
Nepal PM Deuba on Sunday called for a consensus among all political parties to ratify the proposed grant-in-aid from the US under the ‘Millennium Challenge Corporation’ (MCC). Deuba said that the MCC program is not against the national interest. Indeed, Nepal’s political parties are divided over the issue of accepting US grant-in-aid under the MCC agreement, which is under consideration in the House of Representatives.
Will facilitate export of hydroelectric power to India
Nepal and the United States had signed the MCC agreement in 2017. Under the MCC program, the US government will provide grant assistance that will be used primarily to strengthen Nepal’s transmission line, facilitate hydroelectric power exports to India in the near future and also improve the country’s road network. In the inaugural session of the 8th General Conference of the CPN-Maoist Centre, Deuba stressed the need to ratify the USD 500 million MCC agreement by building a consensus among all political parties.
The Nepalese PM rejected the view expressed by some leaders that the agreement was against Nepal’s national interest. “This is a grant-in-aid, so there is no question of the MCC going against the national interest,” he said. The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a bilateral US foreign aid agency established by the US Congress in 2004. China has been accused several times that it is spending a lot of money to create protests in Nepal against the MCC program.
Deuba and Modi likely to hold bilateral meeting
PM Deuba will be visiting India next month to participate in the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit’. During this, Deuba is also expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The ‘Kathmandu Post’ quoted diplomatic sources in Kathmandu and New Delhi as saying that Prime Minister Deuba will leave for India on January 10 to attend the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit’. The detailed schedule of the visit was not immediately available, but sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said a bilateral meeting between Deuba and Modi is likely, the report said. The ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit’ will be held from January 10 to 12.
Preparing to give a big blow to Nepal’s PM Xi Jinping
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