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India softens towards Nepal to stop pro-Beijing tilt
SAM Staff, August 27, 2017
It was clear as crystal during Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s visit to New Delhi earlier this week, that his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, was bending over backwards to woo Nepal in the context of India’s politico-military standoff with China in Doklam, which is into its third month with no end in sight.
Modi expressed satisfaction over the utilization of two Lines of Credit of US$ 100 million and US$ 250 million for development of roads and power infrastructure in Nepal, and announced the allocation of US$ 200 million for irrigation projects, and USD 330 million for development of roads from a Line of Credit of US$ 550 million.
There is a US$ 750 million line of credit for reconstruction in the earthquake-hit areas of Nepal.
Even as India suggested and got Nepal’s approval of a number infrastructural projects, some within Nepal, and others linking Nepal with India, Prime Minister Modi considerably softened India’s stand on the issue of Nepal’s new constitution. He did not push the case of the Madhesis (people of Indian origin living in the Terai or plains of Nepal) vis-a-is the constitution. He ignored the stalled constitution making process and congratulated Deuba for attempting to write a constitution which is inclusive in nature. He congratulated Deuba also for holding the local bodies elections successfully.
When Deuba went to meet him before formal talks, Modi came to the doorstep to greet him. When Deuba choked while speaking at a public reception, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj herself walked up to the rostrum to give him a glass of water to drink.
But Modi’s determined efforts to get Deuba to commit to a firm alliance with India in relation to China on the Doklam affair, failed.
According to Nepali Times, Modi invited Deuba for unscheduled talks over tea before Thursday’s official meeting in which he tried to get Deuba to side with India on the Doklam row. But this did not cut ice. Stubborn Deuba did not yield to many suggestions made by India for Indian-aided projects in Nepal.
Deuba stood his ground even at the Civic Reception given to him by “India Foundation”, a think tank close to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when the Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan asked for Nepal’s support for India against China.
“India will defend Nepal if a third country attacks it, and Nepal will have to support India if a third country attacks India,” Paswan said. To that all that Deuba would say was: “China is a good friend of Nepal … China has always respected Nepal’s sovereignty.”
Deuba’s retort did not go down well in New Delhi. Guests at the reception accosted the supposedly pro-Chinese Nepalese Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, whether he had influenced Deuba. Mahara denied it and added that the Prime Minister had his own mind.
Indian leaders expected Deuba to say: “India too is Nepal’s friend, and India too has always respected Nepal’s sovereignty”, or words to that effect.
However, India succeeded in getting Nepal to continue its military ties with India. The Joint Communique said that the two countries are “committed to further enhancing close cooperation between the Indian Army and the Nepal Army.”
Equidistance Sought
Like other countries in South Asia, Nepal also aspires for equidistance from India and China. As Suhasini Haidar notes in her article in The Hindu: Nepal’s Foreign Minister Mahara said prior to his meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that Nepal will not get dragged into this or that side in the border dispute.
Making a similar point while speaking at a conference on public relations recenty, a Sri Lankan Minister contended that India and China are “both important” to Sri Lanka. Columnists in Bhutan are increasingly advocating that Bhutan maintain a distance from both the Indian and Chinese positions.
“A policy of equidistance for our closest neighbors is a far cry from India’s past primacy in the region and something South Block can hardly be sanguine about,” Haidar notes.
The Maldives got rid of GMR from its Male airport development project in 2012. But today Chinese companies are bagging contracts for most infrastructure projects in the Maldives. This includes development of a new island and its link to the capital Male and a 50-year lease on another island for a tourism project.
“In Nepal China is building a railway, opening up a Lhasa-Kathmandu road link, and has approved a soft loan of over $200 million to construct an airport at Pokhara. According to the Investment Board Nepal, at a two-day investment summit in March this year, Chinese investors contributed $8.2 billion, more than 60% of the foreign direct investment commitments made by the seven countries present,” Haidar points out.
In Sri Lanka China has 80% stake in Hambantota port for 99 years. When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Bangladesh in October 2016 China pledged US$ 24 billion for infrastructure and energy projects.
Earlier this year, the largely state-owned Chinese consortium, Himalaya Energy, won a bid for three gas fields in Bangladesh’s north-east shoulder from the American company Chevron, which together account for more than half of the country’s total gas output, Haidar points out.
“Even if Pakistan is not counted in this list, it is not hard to see which way India’s immediate neighbours, which are each a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), are headed in the next few years. More pointedly, once the investment flows in, it will be that much harder for them to stave off a more strategic presence which China is now more unabashed about,” she notes.
Neglect of SAARC
In the 1980s India had a good chance of building a regional association from which it could have kept the Chinese out. Bangladesh had mooted the idea of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). But India sabotaged it right from the beginning even while becoming part of it.
New Delhi wondered if SAARC was a ploy to gang up against it. It was also extremely uncomfortable with the membership of Pakistan in SAARC. While India wanted to keep bilateral issues out of SAARC discussions, Pakistan insisted that bilateral issues such as Kashmir could not be avoided if SAARC is to work in harmony.
With the result, today, SAARC exists only in name. There is very little meaningful cooperation especially in investment and trade. With its regional cooperation group in virtual shambles and its own economy 13 years behind China, India is too weak to resist China’s inroads into the South Asian region.
India has announced billions of dollars in aid to its South Asian neighbors but still the countries of the region see a future only in a link with rising China. China is not only growing from strength to strength economically, but is willing to loosen its purse strings. India, on the other hand, is a slow boat which also has too many irons in the fire in the region. China is free from all this baggage.
India has some political or economic issue or the other with every country in the South Asian region which makes these nations wary and suspicious of India, a handicap China does not suffer from in this region.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/27/india-softens-towards-nepal-stop-pro-beijing-tilt/
SAM Staff, August 27, 2017
It was clear as crystal during Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s visit to New Delhi earlier this week, that his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, was bending over backwards to woo Nepal in the context of India’s politico-military standoff with China in Doklam, which is into its third month with no end in sight.
Modi expressed satisfaction over the utilization of two Lines of Credit of US$ 100 million and US$ 250 million for development of roads and power infrastructure in Nepal, and announced the allocation of US$ 200 million for irrigation projects, and USD 330 million for development of roads from a Line of Credit of US$ 550 million.
There is a US$ 750 million line of credit for reconstruction in the earthquake-hit areas of Nepal.
Even as India suggested and got Nepal’s approval of a number infrastructural projects, some within Nepal, and others linking Nepal with India, Prime Minister Modi considerably softened India’s stand on the issue of Nepal’s new constitution. He did not push the case of the Madhesis (people of Indian origin living in the Terai or plains of Nepal) vis-a-is the constitution. He ignored the stalled constitution making process and congratulated Deuba for attempting to write a constitution which is inclusive in nature. He congratulated Deuba also for holding the local bodies elections successfully.
When Deuba went to meet him before formal talks, Modi came to the doorstep to greet him. When Deuba choked while speaking at a public reception, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj herself walked up to the rostrum to give him a glass of water to drink.
But Modi’s determined efforts to get Deuba to commit to a firm alliance with India in relation to China on the Doklam affair, failed.
According to Nepali Times, Modi invited Deuba for unscheduled talks over tea before Thursday’s official meeting in which he tried to get Deuba to side with India on the Doklam row. But this did not cut ice. Stubborn Deuba did not yield to many suggestions made by India for Indian-aided projects in Nepal.
Deuba stood his ground even at the Civic Reception given to him by “India Foundation”, a think tank close to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when the Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan asked for Nepal’s support for India against China.
“India will defend Nepal if a third country attacks it, and Nepal will have to support India if a third country attacks India,” Paswan said. To that all that Deuba would say was: “China is a good friend of Nepal … China has always respected Nepal’s sovereignty.”
Deuba’s retort did not go down well in New Delhi. Guests at the reception accosted the supposedly pro-Chinese Nepalese Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, whether he had influenced Deuba. Mahara denied it and added that the Prime Minister had his own mind.
Indian leaders expected Deuba to say: “India too is Nepal’s friend, and India too has always respected Nepal’s sovereignty”, or words to that effect.
However, India succeeded in getting Nepal to continue its military ties with India. The Joint Communique said that the two countries are “committed to further enhancing close cooperation between the Indian Army and the Nepal Army.”
Equidistance Sought
Like other countries in South Asia, Nepal also aspires for equidistance from India and China. As Suhasini Haidar notes in her article in The Hindu: Nepal’s Foreign Minister Mahara said prior to his meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that Nepal will not get dragged into this or that side in the border dispute.
Making a similar point while speaking at a conference on public relations recenty, a Sri Lankan Minister contended that India and China are “both important” to Sri Lanka. Columnists in Bhutan are increasingly advocating that Bhutan maintain a distance from both the Indian and Chinese positions.
“A policy of equidistance for our closest neighbors is a far cry from India’s past primacy in the region and something South Block can hardly be sanguine about,” Haidar notes.
The Maldives got rid of GMR from its Male airport development project in 2012. But today Chinese companies are bagging contracts for most infrastructure projects in the Maldives. This includes development of a new island and its link to the capital Male and a 50-year lease on another island for a tourism project.
“In Nepal China is building a railway, opening up a Lhasa-Kathmandu road link, and has approved a soft loan of over $200 million to construct an airport at Pokhara. According to the Investment Board Nepal, at a two-day investment summit in March this year, Chinese investors contributed $8.2 billion, more than 60% of the foreign direct investment commitments made by the seven countries present,” Haidar points out.
In Sri Lanka China has 80% stake in Hambantota port for 99 years. When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Bangladesh in October 2016 China pledged US$ 24 billion for infrastructure and energy projects.
Earlier this year, the largely state-owned Chinese consortium, Himalaya Energy, won a bid for three gas fields in Bangladesh’s north-east shoulder from the American company Chevron, which together account for more than half of the country’s total gas output, Haidar points out.
“Even if Pakistan is not counted in this list, it is not hard to see which way India’s immediate neighbours, which are each a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), are headed in the next few years. More pointedly, once the investment flows in, it will be that much harder for them to stave off a more strategic presence which China is now more unabashed about,” she notes.
Neglect of SAARC
In the 1980s India had a good chance of building a regional association from which it could have kept the Chinese out. Bangladesh had mooted the idea of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). But India sabotaged it right from the beginning even while becoming part of it.
New Delhi wondered if SAARC was a ploy to gang up against it. It was also extremely uncomfortable with the membership of Pakistan in SAARC. While India wanted to keep bilateral issues out of SAARC discussions, Pakistan insisted that bilateral issues such as Kashmir could not be avoided if SAARC is to work in harmony.
With the result, today, SAARC exists only in name. There is very little meaningful cooperation especially in investment and trade. With its regional cooperation group in virtual shambles and its own economy 13 years behind China, India is too weak to resist China’s inroads into the South Asian region.
India has announced billions of dollars in aid to its South Asian neighbors but still the countries of the region see a future only in a link with rising China. China is not only growing from strength to strength economically, but is willing to loosen its purse strings. India, on the other hand, is a slow boat which also has too many irons in the fire in the region. China is free from all this baggage.
India has some political or economic issue or the other with every country in the South Asian region which makes these nations wary and suspicious of India, a handicap China does not suffer from in this region.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/27/india-softens-towards-nepal-stop-pro-beijing-tilt/
, If India want to make alliance, let have a competition to see who will get the most alliance, China definitely able to offer similar deal to Pakistan, BD, SL, Nepal, we will ask them to support China, if India attack any of these country mean attack China and India will be very sorry for that.
