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Amid Chinese Claims Of ‘Successful’ Visit Of Xi Jinping, Nepal Shelves Extradition, Defence Pact Plans With China
Nepal’s KP Sharma Oli with Xi Jinping (Etienne Oliveau/Getty Images)
While China is terming President Xi Jinping’s Nepal visit a ‘grand success’, the Nepalese government has held back on a number of proposals at the last minute, worrying the possibility of them infringing upon its sovereignty, The Economic Times reported.
The dropped proposals included crucial ones of an extradition treaty, defence, and border road construction in the Himalayan nation.
Although 18 pacts were signed following the summit meetings between Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Xi Jinping in Kathmandu on Sunday (13 October), the extradition treaty was not finalised compensating with a pact on Mutual Legal Assistance in criminal matters.
Sections of Nepalese government were concerned believing that the treaty might be used to crackdown against Tibetans and their deportation to China. Nepal hosts over 20,000 Tibetan exiles and shares a long border with the country.
More expected treaties, including a proposed defence agreement, pact on border road construction, opening of more port access to Nepal in special terms, and Beijing’s help in building of the National Defence University (NDU) for Nepal, were put on the back burner due to apprehensions in the sections of the government and concerns of the opposition. Active dialogues, however, over NDU had been going on between the two administrations till few days before the summit, but could not mould into a deal.
Another proposal was shelved according to which China was going to construct or at least fund the construction of new Parliament building in Nepal. Former Nepal PM Baburam Bhattarai had requested the Nepal government to not go ahead with this pact as similar arrangement was also being discussed with India.
Shelving of these proposals can also be linked with several anti-China protests that have taken place in Nepal in recent past over a number of issues from hacking of over 200 Nepali websites by Chinese company Huawei to financial frauds involving Chinese nationals.
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