China’s unilateral announcement that the Pokhara International Airport will be built under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has finally reached parliament.
Two Nepalese MPs, Ram Hari Hatiwada and Rastiya Swatantra MP Asim Shah, asked on Monday to Foreign Minister NP Saud and Sudanese Tourism Minister Kirati whether Pokhara International Airport is part of the Belt and Road Initiative. , and asked whether the government intends to clarify its position on the BRI.
Responding to them, Foreign Minister Saud said that Nepal and China had signed the framework agreement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2017 and it is still at the stage of execution. He did not name the Pokhara airport but stated that not a single project under the BRI has come into operation in Nepal.“The project implementation plan of the BRI is at the stage of discussion between Nepal and China. Not a single project in Nepal under the BRI has been executed. The project implementation plan of the BRI is still under consideration,” said Saud. After the Nepal side selected nine projects to be executed under the BRI, the second Belt and Road Initiative Conference in China in 2019 incorporated the Trans Himalayan Multidimensional Connectivity in its outcome document. The nine projects were—the Rasuwagadhi-Kathmandu road upgrade; Kimathanka-Hile road construction; road from Dipayal to the Chinese border; Tokha-Bidur road; Galchhi-Rasuwagadhi-Kerung 400kV transmission line; Kerung-Kathmandu rail; 762MW Tamor hydroelectricity project; 426 MW Phukot Karnali hydroelectric project; and the Madan Bhandari Technical Institute.
Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Nepal four years ago, when the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Kathmandu in March 2019, the Nepali side proposed developing the Madan Bhandari University under the BRI. That was the only project the Nepali side had proposed for development under the BRI, but due to several reasons, it is in limbo. After the Covid pandemic hit China, other projects were also affected. Then the Chinese side, about two years ago, forwarded the text of the project implementation plan of the BRI so that negotiations of projects and their execution under the initiative could be expedited. A draft of the implementation plan is a prerequisite for project selection, funding modality, budgeting, supervision and monitoring, and human resource management. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was taking the lead in developing the plan while other agencies like the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance provided inputs on the draft, which is not moving yet, two government officials told the Post.
“Once we agree on the text of the project implementation plan, we can negotiate and execute the project under the BRI,” said one official. “Not only from Nepal, the Chinese had also asked for similar implementation drafts from other countries that have signed up for the initiative.” When Nepal signed the BRI agreement in 2017, it was touted as a watershed moment in Nepal-China ties. But with not a single project taking off under the Chinese programme, there were doubts if Nepal was itself reluctant to undertake these projects for geopolitical reasons. India and the United States see the BRI as China’s bid to exert influence in the region, using its economic heft. Countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan in South Asia too are part of the BRI.
When Nepal agreed to build projects under the initiative, Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) was prime minister. After him, Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress led the government, followed by KP Sharma Oli of the CPN-UML. After successive governments failed to initiate any project under the BRI, said a pair of foreign ministry and finance ministry officials who are familiar with the matter, there was some kind of unease on the Chinese side if Nepal was really committed to what it signed up for.
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