Nepal’s PM Oli in India to oppose interference in constitution, promote trade agreements
During his six-day official visit, the Nepali prime minister’ will meet his Indian counterpart. This is the first visit since India ended its export embargo. Nepal has set specific guidelines for meetings, especially on its secular state and new Constitution. Four Memoranda of Understanding should be signed on trade.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) – Nepali Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli will land in India tomorrow on an official six-day visit. During his stay, he is expected to meet his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.
This is the first state visit after India ended its five-month export embargo that left Nepal virtually bankrupt and threatened the survival of its population.
The Nepali prime minister will try to rebuild bilateral relations that the embargo had nearly destroyed. Nevertheless, the Nepali government is not going to discuss the country’s secular constitution.
Meetings will focus only economic issues. Four Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) are expected to help relaunch the country after the devastating earthquake of April 2015.
"Nepal and its people have been seriously injured by the embargo of India and we believe that this visit is to show that Nepal does not want to be under the influence of India,” said Deputy Prime Minister C.P. Mainali after a cabinet meeting.
“We have approved some guidelines,” he added, “and told Oli not to sign any agreement that would influence Nepal’s development and sovereignty. We have asked him not to compromise on secularism and on full respect for freedom, including religious freedom in the country.”
All of Nepal’s political parties share this stance. “Prime Minister Oli must ask the real reason for the embargo and let India know that the Nepali Constitution is not its problem,” said Pradeep Nepal, a member of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML)
Rajan Bhattarai, an expert on Indian-Nepali relations, said that "India wants to penetrate in Nepal and influence the population through development projects. In such time of crisis, Nepal has to show that it is independent. "
For Nepali government spokesman Sherdhan Rai, "In all probability the visit will not touch any sensitive issue, like state secularism or minority rights,” ostensibly the reason for India’s embargo, but “we are prepared to sign some aid projects with India."
The four agreements include a line of credit of a billion dollars for infrastructure projects that had been announced during Modi’s visit of August 2014, a billion dollars for post-earthquake reconstruction following last June’s donor conference, a deal between Radio Nepal and All India Radio to exchange programmes, and a formal announcement about the recently built Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line that would allow Nepal to import 80 MW.
"There has been a loss of trust between the leaders of the two countries. The visit aims to reduce this gap,” said Dinesh Bhattarai, a former Nepali ambassador to the United Nations.
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