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Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman held a meeting on Thursday.

During the meeting, the duo discussed the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) debate process, PM’s press advisor Govinda Pariyar said.

“They have discussed to endorse the MCC within the given time frame. The House of Representatives will start a debate on the MCC compact from today,” he said.

Dahal reached Baluwatar after holding a meeting with CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal this morning.

The Parliament meeting is scheduled for 1 pm today.

It has been learnt that the Finance Minister Janardan Sharma will present the compact in the Parliament for a general discussion.

The United States has given the government of Nepal a deadline of February 28 to secure parliamentary ratification of the compact.

Ukraine’s parliament and other government and banking websites were hit with another punishing wave of distributed-denial-of-service attacks Wednesday, and cybersecurity researchers said unidentified attackers had also infected hundreds of computers with destructive malware, Associated Press reported.

Some of the infected computers were in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania, the researchers said.

Early Thursday local time in Ukraine, as fears of a Russian invasion heightened, the foreign ministry and council of ministers were unreachable and other sites were slow to load, suggesting the DDoS attacks were continuing, though there was no official confirmation. 

Officials have long expected cyber attacks to precede and accompany any Russian military incursion, and analysts said the activity hewed to Russia’s playbook of wedding cyber operations with real-world aggression.

ESET Research Labs said it detected a previously unseen piece of data-wiping malware Wednesday on “hundreds of machines in the country.” It was not clear how many networks were affected.

“With regards whether the malware was successful in its wiping capability, we assume that this indeed was the case and affected machines were wiped,” said ESET research chief Jean-Ian Boutin. He would not name the targets but said they were “large organizations.” ESET was unable to say who was responsible.

Symantec Threat Intelligence detected three organizations hit by the wiper malware — Ukrainian government contractors in Latvia and Lithuania and a financial institution in Ukraine, said Vikram Thakur, its technical director. Both countries are NATO members.

All three had “close affiliation with the government of Ukraine,” said Thakur, indicating the targeted attacks. He said roughly 50 computers at the financial outfit were impacted, some with data wiped.

Asked about the wiper attack, senior Ukrainian cyber defense official Victor Zhora had no comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a military operation in eastern Ukraine, claiming it’s intended to protect civilians, Associated Press reported.

In a televised address early Thursday, Putin says the action comes in response to threats coming from Ukraine. 

He adds that Russia doesn’t have a goal to occupy Ukraine. Putin says the responsibility for bloodshed lies with the Ukrainian “regime.” 

Putin also is warning other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action will lead to “consequences they have never seen.”

China said that there should be no interference in any country’s domestic affairs.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said so during a press conference held on Wednesday after the US State Department spokesperson said earlier that Nepal’s failure to ratify the MCC compact will affect bilateral ties.

“It is China’s consistent belief that in pursuing international development cooperation, the principle of mutual respect and equality should be upheld, the sovereignty of the country concerned and the wall of its people should be fully respected and there should be no interference in any country’s domestic affairs, not political strings attached, no coercive diplomacy and certainly no infringement on other country’s sovereignty and interests for selfish gains,” she said.

Though the US Embassy in Nepal has been describing the $500 million MCC grant as a gift from the American people to Nepal, she wondered since when does a gift come with the package of an ultimatum.

“How can anyone accept such a gift? Is it a gift or Pandora's box?” she questioned. “I am afraid that it will turn out like a Nepalis saying: It looks good, but you will find the meat difficult to chew, '' she said.

Cadres of various political parties staged demonstrations in various parts of the Capital after the government decided to table the MCC Nepal compact in the Parliament on Sunday.

As Nepal’s friendly close neighbor and development partner, China will continue to support the Nepali people in choosing independently their own development path and offer support and assistance to Nepal’s socio economic development to the best of its capability, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

Also read: China opposes ‘coercive diplomacy’ of US in pushing MCC compact in Nepal

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying’s Regular Press Conference on February 23, 2022

China News Service: According to reports, the Nepalese government’s decision to submit the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement with the US in Parliament a few days ago has triggered a huge controversy as mass protests were held in places like Kathmandu. The US State Department said that Nepal’s failure to ratify the compact will impact bilateral relations. Some analysts say that the MCC agreement gives itself higher authority than Nepal’s domestic law, US program staff’s activities in Nepal will not be subjected to local jurisdiction, and the project’s accounting and audit is supervised, managed and conducted by the US side. Experts in Nepal believe that accepting the MCC will be detrimental to Nepal’s security and sovereignty. Do you have any comment?

Hua Chunying: I noticed that a US State Department spokesperson said earlier that Nepal’s failure to ratify the MCC compact will affect bilateral ties. The US Embassy in Nepal described the $500 million MCC grant as “a gift from the American people to Nepalis. I wonder, since when does a gift come with the package of an ultimatum? How can anyone accept such a “gift”? Is it a “gift” or Pandora’s box? I’m afraid it will turn out like a Nepalese saying: It looks good, but you will find the meat difficult to chew.

It is China’s consistent belief that in pursuing international development cooperation, the principle of mutual respect and equality should be upheld, the sovereignty of the country concerned and the will of its people should be fully respected, and there should be no interference in any country’s domestic affairs, no political strings attached, no coercive diplomacy, and certainly no infringement on other countries’ sovereignty and interests for selfish gains. As Nepal’s friendly close neighbor and development partner, China will continue to support the Nepalese people in choosing independently their own development path and offer support and assistance to Nepal’s socioeconomic development to the best of its capability.