Editorial
If the Chinese have not got it yet, they will. ‘No neutral’ Nepal has already dished out a variety of opinions and analyses on their foreign minister’s recently concluded three-day visit to Nepal. Going from as low as charges that Wang Yi’s trip here was deliberately low-keyed, messaging a dangerous government viewpoint to China well-wishers here, to enthusiastic coverage of the ensuing nine-point accord having covered most previously agreed upon bilateral projects along with a generous monetary grant, opinions range from high to low. What matters is that Nepal the recipient must take things lying down and ponder over the Chinese generosity with pluck. What matters is that the foreign minister’s trip here will have come to its own conclusions not the least of which is manifest in the agreements arrived at here. In the background of the MCC controversy where China traded words with the US in a rare show of diplomatic disapproval, the Nepali side will also have been judged for its reluctance to even mention the BRI in its remotest context. Having arrived here from New Delhi which virtually blacked out Wang Yi’s trip there, the Chinese are sensitive enough to gauge the nature of treatment provided here. What matters is that Nepal-China relations, in fact, Nepal’s international relations, its relations with the neighbors and big powers appears in a state of flux. This demands care.
Wang Yi departing must also mean Deuba departing this week for a trip to New Delhi. The neighborhood first emphasis is traditional. And, Wang’s sojourn here completes his regional tours of South Asia, which is an important surely. Also of important surely would be the exchanges Wang had in New Delhi regarding the region. How this will have impacted upon Deuba’s Delhi pow wow will have bearing on his trip there. Somehow Nepal seems to have ignored the near-convergence of Chinese and Indian viewpoints on the Ukrainian situation and somehow one cannot get over the sensibilities that not all is well with an international order that is getting polarized and what consequences it will have on Nepal. This is especially so when viewed in the context of regime changes incurred in Nepal at the blatant beckoning of a supposed Indo-West axis from which, in the Ukrainian context, India would rather hedge. Indo-Russian and Indo-Chinese relations are by no means to be lumped into similar categories. But what does seem to want a review in the context of an emerging global order is the Indo-West nexus which is being given a novel strain altogether. The MCC in Nepal cannot be isolated from the current scheme of things and the Nepali prime minister has emerged as its champion and is going to Delhi as such. This gives the Deuba trip a novelty from which eager beavers watching the foreign policy scene from Kathmandu a point of interest undeniably consequential. We can but ask for care.
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