7 Years on , Nepal and China still at odds over BRI excution

Sunday marked the seventh year of the signing of the Belt and Road Initiative between Nepal and China yet the two sides are still struggling to finalise the implementation plan of the BRI that China proposed in early 2020.

Nepal and China signed a memorandum of understanding on the One Belt One Road, later known as BRI, a flagship initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on May 12, 2017, subject to renewal every three years.

Still, there is a divergence of views on whether Nepal needs a dedicated BRI implementation plan to execute the projects under the Chinese initiative, senior government leaders and officials told the Post. Hence there is no clarity over when and how the implementation plan will be signed.

The draft titled “Implementation Plan on Jointly Building the Belt and Road Initiative between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Nepal” is currently under the purview of the National Planning Commission for its redrafting/processing.

There was a general understanding between Nepal and China to sign the BRI implementation plan during the China visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in September last year as well as during the visit of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, in March this year. But there was little progress on both the visits and the signing was indefinitely postponed.

The draft of the BRI implementation plan is not ready yet, DPM Shrestha said. It is said to be in the final stage of completion. Shrestha says he tried to push the plan in his interactions with the Chinese side but there has been no progress.

One senior government official told the Post that the elections in India are the primary reason the plan has not made headway in China.