By Our Reporter
Former Prime Minster and chairman of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has hinted that Nepal might not join the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
The other day Dahal clarified that Nepal couldn’t be part of any military alliance — neither the Indo-Pacific Strategy nor the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, clearly suggesting that Nepal may refrain from IPS.
Interacting with local journalists in Ilam, Dahal said he had conveyed a message to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that Nepal was fully committed to the one-China policy and would not allow any external force to engage in anti-China activities in Nepal. Nepal won’t join any military alliance be it the IPS or BIMSTEC due to its policy of non-alignment,” Dahal said.
Dahal’s clarification came at a time when the Embassy of the United States had sought the government’s clarification on a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement that said Nepal disagreed with the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
It was reported that after the Foreign Ministry of China made public the talks between Dahal and Wang, not only Dahal was dragged into controversy for making comments on IPS to win the heart of the Chinese leaders, it prompted the US Embassy in Kathmandu to seek Nepal’s views on IPS.
Of course, Nepal’s association with IPS has been dragged into controversy for a quite long time. Even US has clarified the IPS was not any military strategy but a policy. US Ambassador Randy Berry and other officials have been reiterating that IPS was a police more than a strategy.
However, when Dahal made a controversial remark on IPS with the Chinese Foreign Minister, the issue has again been a contentious issue.
Earlier, Dahal was dragged into controversy for supporting Venezuela.
But Dahal denied that the US Embassy sought clarification from the government on its stand on IPS.
“Neither the Department of State nor the US Ambassador officially asked the government for clarification on the IPS issue,” Dahal said, adding that China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also not issued any statement in this regard.
He also said that involvement of Nepal in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China was not an alliance with any power nor any military engagement.
Speaking at an interaction organised by Nepal Intellectuals’ Organisation in the capital on Sunday, Prachanda said that Nepal’s involvement in the BRI was just a participatory cooperation for gaining shared prosperity.
The BRI was initiated realising the need of collective efforts in the participatory society to globalise the prosperity of the human beings, he said.
“In Nepal, the BRI is moving ahead as a respectful infrastructure development potential. Therefore, it will just work for social dynamism and social integrity rather than showing any deviation to any sorts of alliances,” Prachanda said.
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