With grants and promises, Nepal minister Khadka returns from China

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Foreign Minister Nepal Narayan Khadka has returned a happy man from China. Beijing has offered a large grant in return for the Kathmandu guarantee to stick to the ‘One China’ policy, Indian Express has learned.

Khadka led 11 delegation members to China earlier this week at the invitation of the Chinese Foreign Minister and Members of the State Council Wang Yi.

Upon his return Khadka, a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nepal said Khadka and Yi discussed the improvement, among others, “bilateral trade, connectivity network, health, tourism, agriculture, education”. China will also fund and provide equipment for the covid control mechanism in Nepal, he added.

The source, however, said Beijing also assured Nepal that they would give 800 million RMB (118 million USD) grants for the current financial year, for the Kathmandu preference projects. This will be an addition to RMB 3. 5 billion promised by Xi Jinping during his visit to Nepal in October 2019.

China also promised to stand in Nepal “in defending sovereignty, independence, and unconditional territorial integrity”, said the source.

On his party, Khadka, the sources quoted above added, convincing the Chinese side of the compliance of Nepal companies towards ‘One China policy’ “cannot be reversed”. Also, about Chinese concerns about disproportionate and the AS-Nepal Association, Khadka is believed to have convinced Yi that Nepal cooperation with Western countries, especially the US, is for development and does not have a component of security or military.

To convince China about this, the two countries also decided to expand their cooperation in the disaster management sector.Nepal also assured China that would not allow external forces to carry out activities against China in his territory, given the sensitivity of Tibetan, Sumber added.