An overly excited Nepal Foreign Minister Pradip Gyawali recently said that he was eager to make a memorable trip to modern China as and when Nepal is linked with China through rail networks.
In saying so while being in China as the guest of his counterpart, Wang Yi, Foreign Minister Gyawali perhaps hinted that Nepali population were more than eager to greet the Chinese locomotive in Nepal and that China should take up the matter seriously and do the needful in satisfying the ballooned wishes of the Nepali people after the callous economic blockade imposed by India in 2015 and the subsequent love and honor exhibited by the Chinese regime towards the India tortured sovereign Nepal in braving the economic obstruction.
In fact it was this six month long blockade that forced Nepal to go in search for a reliable partner in the South Asian vicinity and much beyond.
Prime Minister KPS Oli cashed in upon the blockade wound exacted upon Nepal by former British colony, read India born 1947, and here was yet another ancient friend in the North which responded to the Nepali appeal in a positive manner and since then PM KPS Oli is apparently closer to China than India at least in the eyes of the myopic Indian media and some of its perverted brains who claim themselves as Nepal experts to which they were not.
As for the Nepalese, PM Oli is a nationalist and that is all.
To add strength to his logical tilt to China, if any , PM Oli has recently made it clear that he will have a balanced relations with both India and China and thus already made a three day trip to India to keep the latter in good stead prior to his expanded and meaningful visit to China shortly.
FM Gyawali met his counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing and perhaps has already sounded his friends about the needs and the aspirations of the Nepali population to which the Chinese side has responded in a positive manner, however, friendly strings have been attached with.
While Nepal prefers China to think small, however, the other side ponders over the big, in both size and dimension, in that Beijing wishes to go ahead together with India in order to advance with its OBOR, One belt One Road initiative, which shall only be possible with the kind assistance of India upon leaving the Nepali territories.
In effect, China wants to enter the Indian land mass to provide a grand and vibrant shape to its OBOR initiative that thinks of approaching Europe via India, Pakistan, Central Asia and then finally to Europe.
India too has changed its rigid political stance on China which had been using the Dalai Lama Card against China in the past, beginning the Nehru era precisely speaking, and with this change in Indian attitude, China too has become modest in its behavior with India and the climax is that in a week or so the Indian FM Mrs. Swaraj is visiting Beijing to prepare the impending visit of Prime Minister Modi.
To recall, Mr. Ajit Doval, Indian security adviser, has already made a short trip to Beijing.
This should perhaps mean that Beijing and Delhi were now in good terms. However, but what brought the two declared rivals so close to each other in the recent months remains a matter to be dealt with by the International relations experts. The onus remains now on them.
Whatever may have been the reason behind this new found love in between China and India, what is for sure is that the geo-political compulsions must have brought together the two Asian giants and may have forced both to realize that the two must move together for the shared benefits that were there for both India and China. The Chinese Foreign Minister talked of such a going together of the three-India, China and Nepal.
The OBOR initiative of China has no meaning unless India provides a positive nod for multiple geo-political motives. India in turn must have realized that in the changed world’s political context and in conjunction with that the rise of President Xi as a political heavy weight not only in China but for the entire world, India thus would do well by not ignoring the increasing clout of China in the globe, more so in the South Asian region from where only recently China has won the hearts of Sri Lanka and the Maldives much to the discomfort of New Delhi as the latter had already concluded that these two nations were its friends for all time to come.
However, in international relations, there is nothing like permanent friendship or for that matter the enemies.
Countries change themselves as the political situation changes, both within and without, and thus new friends substitute the previous ones for shared benefits. The cycle perhaps goes on and on.
So if FM Gyawali considers that China should accord top priority to Nepal by ignoring India then he is mistaken. China understands Nepali compulsions from very close quarters but yet to expect that China will get lured by Nepal for all time to come and may even ignore its own “mega-structured calculations” would definitely be a self-defeating exercise.
China shall first guarantee her own political interests and then look into the rest of the matters that were of “shared interests and benefits”.
This time Beijing needs Delhi and vice versa. This is the fresh trend observed in both the Indian and the Chinese capitals.
Nepal matters for Beijing for sure. However, Beijing prefers to advance much beyond Kathmandu. The Chinese ambitions are high.
China has nothing to do with the KATHUWA minor rape incident that has rocked India, the country of Rapists, in the recent days. Albeit the CPEC matters for China. The Chinese envoy based in Pakistan recently applauded the role of his host country in having been able to curb the menace of terrorism despite bad mouth by India. The Indian habit. So be it.
(Watch how the supporters of Khalistan insulted the tri Color, the Indian flag, during PM Modi’s London visit and misbehaved with India today journalist. This amply suggests that the Khalistan movement is likely to take its due shape in the days to come. If it is London today, then tomorrow it could be Toronto, Canada. Great number of Sikhs reside in different cities of Canada and the United Kingdom after the grand flee of the Sikhs for saving lives after the 1984 Delhi incident that saw the killing of the Indian PM Mrs. Gandhi. Thousands and thousands of Sikhs fled India and took shelter in various countries and saved their lives from the wanton killings initiated by some fundamentalists who targeted the Sikh community based primarily in Delhi and across India as well. The injustice made to them then perhaps makes the Sikhs to retaliate against the Indian regime now.) Source Twitter.
Back to the home front, yet chances remain high that Nepal PM KPS Oli may appeal for greater and substantial help from China so that Nepal can survive the fresh economic blockade that may have been in the Indian pipeline for Nepal.
PM Oli should convince his friends in Beijing that greater connectivity matters for Nepal and thus China would do well if she can expand the connectivity in between the two nations through opening new routes and upgrading the old ones that connect Nepal with China’s Tibet.
China perhaps understands better the Nepali compulsions.
Nepal-China friendship is awaiting a new test. How PM Oli is treated in Beijing will perhaps provide some inkling into the scheme of things in the Chinese pipeline for Nepal. The rest would be seen as and when Chinese President Xi lands in Nepal in the near future. President Xi is arriving Nepal after Oli visits Beijing. This has tentatively been agreed upon by both Kathmandu and Beijing.
April 19, 2018.