-Is German envoy China hater?

N. P. Upadhyaya (Aryal)

Kathmandu: The German Ambassador to Nepal, Dr. Thomas Prinz paid a courtesy call on the newly appointed Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda, January 12, 2023.

During the meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the two dignitaries are learnt to have touched upon issues relating to bilateral relations, mutual interests and matters of common concerns, according to the Prime Minister’s Office in Kathmandu.

On the occasion, the German envoy congratulated PM Dahal on his assumption of the post of the Prime Minister of Nepal and wished him a successful stint.

The diplomatic gesture apart, to recall, the German envoy Dr. Prinz is on record to have said last year in December, 2022, that “China was behind spreading fake news against MCC Compact”-the US project in Nepal, reports The Nepal Live Today dated December 3, 2022.

This was not all. More is yet to come.

Nepal Live Today further writes that Dr. Prinz had also told the media gathering last December that “a lot of journalists in Kathmandu are paid from China for printing news formulated in Beijing”.

“I remember the campaign against MCC last year. There were a lot of fake news reports. It was even written that MCC coming to Nepal was a kind of American occupation and that soldiers would come here to Nepal and Nepal would lose its independence”.

Warning the Nepali journalists, the German envoy said that “journalism in Nepal is also under threat of fake news”.
As if his sharp comments were not enough, Dr. Prinz went on even to say that “a lot of journalists in Nepal are paid by the outsiders for the purpose. “There are a lot of journalists here who are directly paid from your big neighbor, printing news which is formulated in Beijing”.

Notably, in the recent months, the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier talked over phone (December 20, 2022) with President Xi Jinping of China wherein the two leaders maintained that the recent years were of high significance for China-Germany relations, as it had coincided with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

However, why the German envoy in Nepal Dr. Prinz spoke so tough against China is definitely a mystery of the Himalayan dimension.

The German President talked to the Chinese President Xi Jinping just after 17 days of the German envoy’s China bashing on December 3, 2022.

Reacting sharply against the German envoy’s tough comments on China last December, the Communist leader Dr. Bhim Rawal said the German envoy’s statement has violated the dignity of Nepal.

The veteran communist leader formerly associated with the Unified Marxists-Leninists (UML) further said that “Such pugnacious statements not only violate diplomatic norms but also attack the dignity and independence of Nepal. Such slanderous and arrogant utterances against Nepal and its patriotic people are completely refutable and despicable,” he wrote on Facebook and Twitter, informs the Nepal Live Today dated December 6, 2022.

(Bhim Rawal, PhD, @BhimRawal179)

Interestingly, German envoy’s tough comments on China was first reported by the Nepal Live Today (December 3, 2022) and the same news portal reported Dr. Rawal’s critical comments on German envoy, December 6, 2022.

In doing so, Nepal Live Today has done justice to the professional duties as is expected in this line of work.
Having said so, the envoy has met the new Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda who is being dubbed of late by the mainstream Indian media that “Prachanda” leads a set up in Nepal that has a Beijing bend.

In addition, Prachanda who was elevated to the post of Nepal Prime Minister with the tacit help of Nepal’s former Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli whom the Indian media also takes as a declared Beijing hand.

However, Nepali media sources here claim that both Prachanda and Oli are recognized India hands.
The confusion is thus who is whose man?

Hopefully, the German envoy has met the Nepal Prime Minister Dahal who has openly said that “neither I am pro-India nor Pro-China”. The fact is also that Nepal has very good bilateral relations with both China and the USA.

If China is Nepal’s next door neighbor in the North then the USA is equally important for Nepal as the US is perhaps one of the oldest countries to have established diplomatic relations with Nepal.

Nepal needs both China and the US.

Be that as it may, Prachanda during his Maoists People’s War that lasted for over a decade was hibernating in India and had reportedly enjoyed Indian government’s protection.

Despite the Indian media’s shielding new Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda that he was not an India hand but instead a China hand, the fact is that Prachanda spent some ten years in NOIDA, Delhi.

His fresh utterances while talking to the Indian TV immediately after his assumption of the Nepal PM Post that Nepal-India ties were “unique” and that he felt proud for having been “first” interviewed by the Indian TV man does also speaks so many things unspoken.

That’s all.

# Text courtesy: The People’s Review weekly dated January 14, 2023: Ed. Upadhyaya.