Nepal and China have agreed to further strengthen the coordination of mutual development strategies and deepen cooperation in the 'Belt and Road' project.
Both the countries have expressed their readiness to sign the MoU on 'Construction of Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Communication Network' and 'Framework of Belt and Road Cooperation' as soon as possible. During Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's visit to China on Tuesday A joint statement has been issued .
'It is believed that this cooperation will strengthen the connection between the two countries in areas such as ports, roads, railways, aviation, electricity grid and telecommunications and help transform Nepal from a landlocked nation to a landlocked nation', the statement said.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is on a four-day visit to China, had a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang as well as President Xi Jinping and Chairman of the National People's Congress Zhao Leji on Tuesday.
After the meeting between Prime Minister Oli and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang, Nepal and China have agreed on 9 points and signed a memorandum of understanding. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Krishna Prasad Dhakal, informed that the first agreement reached between Nepal and China was the exchange of letters regarding the Tokha-Chhare tunnel. According to him, in the second point of agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Nepal-China trade promotion has been exchanged.
These are the agreements and understandings between Nepal and China
Despite the understanding and agreement on these matters, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation framework between Nepal and China could not be signed. The BRI framework could not be signed after the Chinese side disagreed with Nepal's proposal to take only grants in addition to loans.
Nepal signed the memorandum of understanding of BRI in 2017. This time, China proposed to sign the 'BRI Implementation Action Plan' during the visit of Nepal's Prime Minister Oli. After changing the name of the action plan sent by China to BRI cooperation framework, Nepal sent back the proposal without taking the loan. There was a long discussion between the Chinese and Nepalese sides about the words like 'loan', 'investment' and 'grant' within the framework sent by Nepal.
After Nepal said that it should not take a loan and China should keep the word investment, the memorandum of understanding and agreement was signed only as a project.
