Since 1950, US policymakers have been pitching for country-specific policies while dealing with small South Asian countries. But when it comes to Nepal, they reckon US interests are best served by a policy of close sharing of information with India.

As far back as 1954, the US National Security Council had stated in its document: “India is apprehensive of the US information and technical assistance activity to Nepal.” 

The document further said, “It is very important that they [India] feel well informed of our activities in that country [Nepal]. Our policy should be independent, but we should keep the Indians apprised of our objectives and what we are doing.”

When Nepal requested the US for military assistance in 1960—as a part of King Mahendra’s strategy of diversifying away from India and China—the Americans responded that Nepal should meet its requirement from India. The US officials further said that they would consult officials in New Delhi about Nepal’s requests. 

It is clear that the US is highly concerned about Nepal owing to its strategic location. And its engagement with the country has remained more or less unchanged since the 1950s.  In the past, the core US objective was to prevent the communist penetration of Nepal, and now, too, it wants to contain China’s growing economic and military influence in the Himalayan country. 

No wonder speculations about the US viewing Nepal through ‘Indian eyes’ continue to be rife.

This impression was further buttressed when New Delhi and Washington worked closely with each on Nepal’s peace process that started in 2006. 

In recent decades, there has been a sea change in international politics, particularly with the incessant rise of China. 

Containing China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region through alliances and allies is a key foreign policy priority of the Joe Biden administration. The US Indo-Pacific Strategy, brought with the same purpose, has economic, political, and military components. 

Though Nepal’s participation in regional and global issues is minimal, the US has recognized the country’s central role in the maintenance of a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. That is why engagement between Kathmandu and Washington is growing, particularly after the formation of the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government in July 2021. 

The past few months witnessed the exchange of a series of high-level visits between the two countries, and more visits are on the cards. 

Nepal Army chief General Prabhu Ram Sharma is due to travel to the US on June 27. Meanwhile, preparations are also underway for Prime Minister Deuba’s US trip. 

With the passage of the $630m MCC compact, a US grant program, by Nepal’s parliament in February, America’s financial assistance to Nepal has increased substantially as well. 

Meanwhile, India, which has for long been apprehensive of the presence of outside powers in its backyard, also seems to be getting comfortable with the growing US engagement in the region. This is in part due to increasing conflict between India and China, mainly after the military clash in Galwan Valley in 2020. 

In recent years, there has been a strategic convergence on many issues between New Delhi and Washington. Despite their differing positions on Russia, the two countries are working together on regional affairs. 

A former Indian ambassador to Nepal, who spoke to ApEx on condition of anonymity, says there is a tentative understanding between India and the US about the latter’s engagements in South Asian countries. 

The growing US-Nepal ties have garnered mixed reactions among the policymakers and think tanks in New Delhi. 

Amid the heightened US-China rivalry, India, too, has stepped up its engagement with Kathmandu, even as it remains silent over the growing bonhomie between Kathmandu and Washington. As Nepal’s engagement with China has slowed, its interactions with the US and India are continuously increasing.

Some analysts in New Delhi argue that, as India alone cannot curtail China’s influence in the Himalayan country, the country should not object to Washington’s greater sway in Kathmandu. 

“New Delhi for now appears to be happy with its low-key approach as it witnesses the growing US-China contestation in Kathmandu from the sidelines,” says the former ambassador.

Ashok K. Mehta, a former major general of the Indian Army and an old Nepal watcher, agrees. 

India takes the recent engagement between Kathmandu and Washington positively, he tells ApEx. 

“The US may be promoting its own interests in this region, but those are not very different to India’s own interests,” he says. “In this region, India wants to keep China at a safe distance, especially in Nepal.” 

In a telegram to the US State Department in 1973, the US embassy in New Delhi stated that “the official Indian policy is consonant with our interest in having a South Asia of stable, independent states where no outside power has an exclusive position.” 

It went on to say: “All the smaller neighbors suspect India really wants hegemony, and indeed it may. They react by trying to maintain close relations with world powers.”  

For a long time, Mehta says, Deuba has been known as “a good friend of the West”. This has gone down well in New Delhi, at a time India is tilting towards the US.  

“In the past, India used to say China is not a threat to the region. This has now totally changed, mainly after the clash in Ladakh,” he adds.

Following the endorsement of the MCC compact by Nepal’s parliament, the US has been an active player in the region under the Indo-Pacific Strategy. 

“Both India and the US see China as the main threat in the Indo-Pacific region,” Mehta says.

Amit Ranjan, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, says as New Delhi and Washington are on good terms, India may not show much concern over Nepal-US engagements for now. 

In the long run though, he says Kathmandu’s closeness to the US may affect Indian interests in Nepal. 

“For now, India sees that the US isn’t working against Indian interests in South Asia. It is of the view that the US is here to check Beijing,” he says.