IANS/Beijing
Nepal has backed China’s ambitious Silk Road project ahead of President Ram Baran Yadav’s visit to Beijing this week that is expected to take bilateral ties to a new level.
In an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency, the Nepal president said he was hopeful of establishing “better air and road connectivity” with China, as he expressed the hope that his upcoming visit, and talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, would “take Nepal-China relations to a
new high”.
Nepal last month voiced formal backing for China’s Silk Road economic belt project, under which Beijing has earmarked funds for building road and rail links and free trade zones with neighbouring
countries.
Yadav will meet Xi as a guest at the Boao Forum in Hainan, an island province in south China, that will take place between March 26 and 30. The forum, billed as China’s Davos, has assumed particular significance this year as China will unveiled a detailed blueprint of the land Silk Road economic belt and Maritime Silk Road projects.
The attendance of Yadav at the unveiling will underline Nepal’s support. New President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka, which has backed the Maritime Silk Road plan, will also be present at Boao. India is yet to endorse the plan, making the point that China had, so far, not released concrete details about what it will involve.
China has recently expanded its already vast highway and rail network in Tibet close to the Nepal border. While Beijing has long been pushing Kathmandu for a rail link to extend its Tibet railway network into Nepal, discussions have been moving slow in part because of India’s sensitivities.
With China emerging as the biggest source of foreign investment in Nepal, the country has recently signalled its readiness for Chinese investment in boosting road connectivity. China has already begun upgrading its “friendship highway”, or National Highway 318, that runs from Lhasa all the way to Zhangmu, which borders Nepal. On the Nepali side, the highway that runs from the border port of Kodari has
required upgrading.
China has announced it will provide technology and assistance to build a modern dry port at Tatopani near Kodari, having opened another port of entry on its side of the border in Gyirong in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Gyirong, officials say, will be built into a cross-border free trade zone dedicated to Nepal - a project likely to be discussed when Yadav meets
Xi next week.
Earlier this month, China and Nepal began discussing building a second inland container depot at Rasuwagadhi, Nepali media reported, with China offering to bear the entire cost and construct six such land ports along the Tibet border to boost trade. The Rasuwagadhi port, Nepali reports said, would offer a much needed alternative land-link with the highway from Kodari cut off last year
because of landslides.
Besides boosting trade, Chinese experts say the projects will also enable China to better manage and monitor the Nepal-Tibet border, with Beijing restricting Tibetans crossing over into Nepal. Just this week, Nepal’s Police Chief visited China on a goodwill visit, with Nepali authorities recently stepping up restrictions on the 20,000-strong Tibetan community in the country. Tibetan groups said this week that authorities had banned public activities to mark the March 10 anniversary of “uprising day”.