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India and Japan have agreed to work together on assisting crisis-hit Sri Lanka, the Japanese government said, following a recent meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, The Hindu reported.

Mr. Modi and Mr. Kishida met on May 24 on the sidelines of the Quad summit and held bilateral talks on “close cooperation” to promote efforts to realise a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’, in addition to collaboration in spheres including defence, clean energy, and investment.

Following the meeting, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the leaders “discussed the situation in Sri Lanka and confirmed that they will cooperate with each other in light of the current economic crisis and deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country.” Further, they “shared the view to work together to develop Indo-Pacific Economic Framework into an inclusive framework that will bring substantive benefits to the region,” according to a statement.

Ministry of External Affairs made no specific mention of Sri Lanka. “The two leaders exchanged views on recent global and regional developments. They noted the convergences in their respective approaches to the Indo-Pacific and reaffirmed their commitment towards a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region,” read its May 24 statement, according to The Hindu.

For over half a century, Japan has been one of Sri Lanka’s top donors and development partners, although its grants and investments have received much less attention compared to those from China or India.   

Japan’s announcement of collaborating with India to help Sri Lanka, assumes significance, coming shortly after Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s proposal that Quad members— United States, India, Japan, and Australia — take the lead in setting up a foreign aid consortium to assist Sri Lanka, that is reeling under the worst economic crisis since Independence.  India has extended about $ 3.5 billion assistance since January this year, by way of loan deferments and credit lines for essential imports. 

Japan’s initiative also comes despite Colombo scrapping two major infrastructure projects with Japanese involvement. In September 2020, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered the termination of a $ 1.5-billion Japanese-funded light rail project, on that basis that it was not a “cost-effective solution”. In early 2021, Sri Lanka ejected Japan and India out of a trilateral project to jointly develop a container terminal at the strategically located Colombo Port, causing considerable diplomatic tensions. India’s Adani Group was subsequently roped in to develop another terminal at the same port, The Hindu reported.

Meanwhile, addressing the ‘International conference on the future of Asia’ organised by Nikkei virtually, Mr. Gotabaya said Sri Lanka “urgently requires” assistance of friends in the international community “to ensure that our immediate needs in terms of the importation of essential medicines, food supplies, and fuel are met.”

Japan “remains one of Sri Lanka’s key development partners”, the Sri Lankan President said, expressing hope that ongoing negotiations on “bridging funds” from Japan would soon conclude. “We are also in urgent need of bridging financing to restore confidence in our external sector and stabilise our economy until the debt restructuring process is completed and an IMF programme commences,” he said, while thanking India, Sri Lanka’s “close friend and neighbour”. 

Colombo earlier sought India’s help in securing bridge financing to cope with the downturn, until an International Monetary Fund package materialises. The government is in talks with IMF on debt restructuring after opting for a preemptive default on its foreign debt of about $ 50 billion, according to The Hindu.

Chief of Army Staff (CoA) Prabhu Ram Sharma is set to travel to the United States of America.

During the visit, he is expected to hold high-level talks with US officials on expanding defense cooperation. In recent years, the US is keen to enhance the defense collaboration with Nepal.

Similarly, senior US military officials are also visiting Nepal. 

The Indo-Pacific Strategy Report, unveiled by the US Department of Defense on 1 June 2019, clearly talks about enhancing defense partner­ship with South Asian countries, including Nepal. “Within South Asia, we are working to operationalize our Major Defense Partnership with India, while pursuing emerging part­nerships with Sri Lanka, the Mal­dives, Bangladesh, and Nepal,” the document says.

“The United States seeks to expand our defense relationship with Nepal, focused on HA/DR [humanitarian assistance/disaster relief], peace­keeping operations, defense profes­sionalization, ground force capacity, and counter-terrorism. Our growing defense partnership can be seen in the establishment of the US Army Pacific-led Land Forces Talks in June 2018, our senior-most military dia­logue with Nepal,” the document further says.

Coming to the present day, for 2019-2020, the US has increased Nepal’s training and equipment budget by nearly $65 million. It has supported disaster response in var­ious provinces as well. In 2019, the US provided a big chunk of military assistance to Nepal including sky trucks, light cargo, and passenger aircraft. 

An independent candidate Balen Shah has been elected as the mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City. He will head the Kathmandu metropolis for next five years.

He defeated his nearest rival Srijana Singh of Nepali Congress by 23, 426 votes to become the new mayor of Kathmandu metropolis.

An engineer by profession, Shah garnered 62, 767 votes while Singh secured 38, 341 votes. 

Similarly, CPN-UML candidate Keshav Sthapit received 38, 117 votes.

Shah (32) is also one of the popular rappers of Nepal. 

Likewise, Sunita Dangol of CPN-UML has been elected as the deputy mayor of the metropolis with 68, 612 votes.

Her closest contender Rameshwar Shrestha of CPN (Unified Socialist) got 23, 806 votes.

Nepal firmly adheres to the one-China principle, and will never allow any forces to use its territory for anti-China separatist activities, the Nepali side said during a virtual meeting with Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao at the 14th round of China-Nepal diplomatic consultation held on Wednesday, Global Times reported.

China and Nepal are good neighbors and friends that help, respect and trust each other. In 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari visited each other and upgraded bilateral relations to a strategic partnership for mutual development and prosperity. 

As close neighbors and dear friends, China and Nepal should promote their traditional friendship and stand firm in supporting each other, Wu said. He said that the two sides should deepen cooperation on epidemic prevention, build the Belt & Road Initiative with high quality, and maintain close communication in various fields. 

For his part, Foreign Secretary of Nepal Bharat Raj Paudyal said that Nepal attaches great importance to its ties with China, and expressed satisfaction and confidence for bilateral development. 

Nepal firmly adheres to the one-China principle, Paudyal noted, and will never allow any forces to use its territory for anti-China separatist activities. Nepal will actively participate in the Belt & Road Initiative, strengthen communications on multiple levels and coordinate with China on regional and international affairs, according to Global Times.

The two sides also exchanged ideas on the cooperation and plans in the fields of future trade and investment, interconnection, law enforcement and security and humanistic exchanges.

In March, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid a visit to Kathmandu, the highest-level visit by a Chinese delegation since Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba assumed office in July 2021. The visit also came after Nepal's ratification of a $500 million grant from the US through the MCC agreement.  

During his visit, Wang said China believes the affairs of Nepal should be decided by its people, and China opposes any attempt to undermine Nepal's sovereignty and independence, interfere in its internal affairs and engage in geopolitical games in the country.

In February, BBC reported that "a Nepalese government report leaked to the BBC accuses China of encroaching into Nepal along the two countries' shared border" in the district of Humla, in the far west of Nepal, Global Times reported.

However, the Global Times found that the claims had been raised since 2020, and have been repeatedly refuted by the Nepali Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Observers said the BBC's report raised suspicions that its motives match "Tibetan independence" secession forces, and was part of a smear campaign against China amid applause for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, Global Times reported.