BRI work plan needs serious studies

Our political leaders, foreign policy and diplomacy baffled our regional super power and the second largest economy of the world China at Its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which was initiated by president Xi Jinping and has been adopted by dozens of countries of the world. Hardly a few countries have dared to come out of this Chinese venture. China was so much perplexed that the third Road and Belt Forum for International Corporation in its meeting held on 17-18 Oct 2023 included two small operational projects, Panda Pack Project and Amity Living Water Project, in the list of projects under BRI against nine projects selected during PM Oli’s last visit on account of the BRI implementation plan remained held up in Kathmandu. The then Chinese envoy’s claim that the construction of Pokhara International Airport was made under BRI as he knew well that the project was started before Nepal signed it, showed the Chinese desperation. This agony of China has now been removed by PM Oli’s four-day visit (Dec 2-5) to China. Its constant efforts since 2020 to get its BRI implementation plan accepted by Nepal has now succeeded.

The government has published the contents of the BRI Cooperation framework. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may now be called Belt and Road Initiative Cooperation (BRIC) in Nepal, as mode of payment will now be ‘technical and aid assistance against the usual mode of payment being loan to aid assistance, which was unfamiliar to the BRI world. Nepal has now expanded the payment modalities including technician and aid assistance disregarding its previous stand on ‘grant’ only. It seems that the PM has used his autotype as a PM ignoring the stand of the Nepali Congress. The contents of the plan have been very carefully drafted, as what China has given with one hand seems to have been taken away with another.

It is feared that Chinese currency might become a legal tender by allowing China to use it for the projects financed by it. We must be thankful to God that the Chinese language has not been accepted as a medium of teaching as yet at the university-level.  Positively, PM Oli’s visit to China shows that he is not only a shrewd politician but also a smart diplomat as he got the BTIC signed, as the Chinese BRI implantation idea has been replaced by another nomenclature by Nepal. Had it not been signed, his visit could have been taken as a failed one. He has apparently given all that he could have. It is more than what was given during president Xi’s last visit in 2029. 

Negatively, PM Oli could not give all that (loan modality), which  he wanted to offer to please the Chinese leadership. That is probably the reason why he got irritated when the question regarding ‘loan’ was raised during his press conference at the airport. The consensual draft prepared by the joint expert committee that included the terminology of ‘BRI Cooperation Framework’ replacing the Chinese BRI Implementation Plan’ was only half-heartedly supported by the PM. This was probably the reason why he excessively talked here about not taking loans from China for any projects, which was definitely not acceptable to China.

Since PM Oli had already made up his mind to visit China, he accepted the consensus draft to preserve the alliance and the Chinese negotiators might have accepted it to negotiate further while finalizing the draft in China during the visit. China had not taken the Nepali defiance of sending the revised/modified version of the implementation plan kindly. Probably sensing the dissatisfaction, he did not take up the demand of converting the loan taken for Pokhara airport into grant, the issue, which was already communicated by Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel to Yang Weiqun, vice-chair of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, on Aug 23 in Kathmandu. It seems he did not raise the issue to irritate further the Chinese establishment, which might have delayed the BRI cooperation work plan accepted by it, as was done by the then PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal who did not raise the issue of border disputes with Indian PM Modi during his visit to India. 

However, in domestic politics he has proved himself as an unchallenged leader who can do anything indirectly which he cannot do directly. He has again outwitted Sher Bahadur Deuba by doing what he wanted to do despite his assurance of not doing that. He has obliged Deuba by accepting the prime ministership overnight betraying the strategic political partner Dahal. Alternatively, Deuba knows his inability to oppose PM Oli at this juncture, probably on account of personal problems.