Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli will travel to China in early December, the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) confirmed in Kathmandu, making him the first Nepali leader not to visit India on his first bilateral visit abroad after taking over.
After being sworn in as Prime Minister for the fourth time in July, Mr. Oli had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a United Nations conference in September, while Nepal Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba had visited New Delhi for talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in August.
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Officials said the visit to Beijing was fixed recently, and that New Delhi has not extended an invitation to Mr. Oli thus far.
However, analysts point to the visit as a symptom of strain in India-Nepal ties on a number of issues, including India’s objection to Chinese investment or components in India-Nepal projects, as well as Nepal’s pending request for additional routes for overflight from India for newly built airports that are running into losses.
More worrying for New Delhi is that Mr. Oli is the second leader after Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu to not make India his first destination for an overseas visit after taking oath. Mr. Muizzu had travelled to Turkiye, the UAE, and China before visiting India this year.
In contrast, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina waited for six months after her re-election in January 2024, visiting Beijing only after she had travelled to New Delhi for a state visit in June.
Mr. Oli is expected to visit China from December 2 to 6, although there has been no official announcement so far.
Speaking to Nepali journalists after a meeting of the CPN-UML, where Mr. Oli’s plans were first announced, former Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali said the focus of Mr. Oli’s trip would be on “implementing the agreements reached” during visit by Nepali leaders to China and during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal in 2019, when Nepal announced it would join the Belt and Road Initiative.
“The simple fact is that he waited for an invitation from India but that invitation hasn’t arrived yet. However, Nepal has independent ties with China, and so the visit to Beijing is not predicated on the visit to India,” said Kanak Mani Dixit, founder editor of Himal Southasian.
The Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to requests for a comment on whether an invitation had been extended to Mr. Oli.
Analysts say that at the top of Mr. Oli’s agenda would be to discuss the status of the loan of about $220 million given by China for the construction of the Pokhara International Airport, and Nepal’s formal request, made in August, that China waive the loan and convert it into a grant for Nepal.
While the Pokhara airport and another one built with a smaller loan of about $50 million from the Asian Development Bank were constructed by 2023, they have not been able to attract regular international flights.
Mr. Dixit said many Nepalis were in favour of a loan waiver but he believed it would reflect poorly on Nepal’s future credit rating and capacity.
“We must make the airport successful and pay back the loan. At the same time, we must raise the level of discussion, raise our voice with India to concede to a very legitimate demand from a neighbouring country for using our airports as we see fit,” he added, likening the Indian government’s blocks on the use of the international airports to a form of “economic coercion” which could snowball like the 2015 economic blockade at the India-Nepal border did.
In June 2023, then Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ had also raised the issue of the additional air routes for the airports during a joint press appearance with Mr. Modi at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
However, there has been no movement on the request thus far, with External Affairs Ministry officials referring to security concerns over granting the overflight permissions over “sensitive” parts of India’s borders.
According to local reports, another area of concern for the Nepali government is an informal “go-slow” on providing Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification to Nepali cement exports and household products that contain Chinese parts, as well as on buying hydropower from Chinese-funded or built projects, issues that have been taken up at official levels.
Published – November 12, 2024 09:00 pm IST
