Nepal-China bilateral diplomatic consultation mechanism meeting tomorrow, Nepal’s stance of not participating in GSI

The 15^th meeting of the bilateral diplomatic consultation mechanism between the foreign ministries of Nepal and China will be held in Beijing this Friday, April 7 (tomorrow).

Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal will lead the Nepali delegation to the meeting. The delegation has already reached China for the meeting. Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs from 15 November 2022, Sun Weidong will be leading the delegation from the Chinese side.

The 14th meeting held last year saw foreign secretary Paudyal leading the Nepali side and Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Jianghao representing the Chinese side. The meeting was held in virtual mode.

The meeting is expected to discuss various issues of bilateral relations. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, border, security and other issues will be discussed in the meeting. China wants to discuss the Global Security Initiative (GSI), a new security architecture floated by China and is seeking Nepal’s support. However, there is no possibility that this matter will be discussed in the meeting.

China had released the concept paper of the GSI plan on February 21. China also wants Nepal’s support in this plan. But Nepal has been continuously denying it. Nepal time and again has communicated to the Chinese side that it cannot be part of, or support, the GSI.

But China’s two other initiatives, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Global Development Initiative (GDI) will be discussed on Friday. Nepal signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the BRI framework agreement in May 2017.

But till now no project under BRI has started in Nepal. Although China claimed that the international airport built in Pokhara is a project under BRI, it was built at Nepal’s own cost. Nepal had taken a loan from a Chinese bank for this airport.

Similarly, China is conducting two projects in Nepal under the GDI, the ‘Smiling Children Project’ and China-led ‘Support to Schools and Communities in Remote Areas for Pandemic Prevention and Green Recovery’.

Border management issues will also be discussed in the meeting on Friday. Since Covid, China has made various excuses and has not allowed the border with Nepal to be fully operational. The checkpoints at Humla and other places are completely blocked.

Similarly, the contracts received by Chinese companies are also progressing at a very slow pace. Especially in the southern border projects, the Chinese companies are holding back on various pretexts rather than proceeding with the work. Narayangadh Butwal road section can be taken as an example.