Nepal Rejects China’s Assertion Of An Airport Was Built As Part Of Belt And Road Initiative

Nepal Foreign Minister NP Saud on Tuesday denied the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal’s allegation that an airport was built in Nepal as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

FM Saud denied the charges while speaking to the International Relations and Tourism Committee, claiming that the BRI project has yet to be implemented in Nepal.

The Chinese Ambassador has often claimed that the Pokhara International Airport was built under the BRI framework.

While speaking at the committee meeting, Saud refuted the Chinese Ambassador’s allegation, stating that Nepal has simply signed on to the deal and that no actual plans or activities have been executed thus far.

China’s statement earlier this week that the Pokhara International Airport is its flagship project in Nepal under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) surprised many. Since then, turmoil has gripped Nepal’s diplomatic circles as China has unilaterally listed one project after another in Nepal under the Belt and Road Initiative.

China asserted Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s inauguration of the new airport.

Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song tweeted, “Warm congratulation to WeChat Pay Cross-board Payment Service Inauguration in Nepal. A new step forward in financial connectivity, one of the five “connectivities” under #BRI initiative”, through his official Twitter handle.

Earlier this week, while speaking to the House of Representatives, Nepal’s Foreign Minister NP Saud said, “The project implementation plan of the BRI is currently being discussed between Nepal and China. In Nepal, not a single BRI project has been completed. The BRI project implementation plan is still being considered”.

China-Nepal relations have recently devolved into a tale of words, with one side claiming that a specific project falls under the BRI and the other claiming that it does not.

According to international policy experts, Nepal would benefit from the misunderstanding.

Following Nepal and China’s framework agreement on the Belt and Road Initiative in 2017, Nepal first selected 35 projects to be implemented under it. The overall number of projects was later decreased to nine, and the list did not include the Pokhara airport, which Beijing has recently included in the BRI.

Without mentioning the BRI, the Nepalese government signed a USD 215 million soft credit arrangement with China in 2016 to develop a new airport in Pokhara. Although China has placed projects in Nepal within the Belt and Road Initiative, the two countries have not explicitly agreed on whether the BRI projects will be loan- or grant-based.

Despite Nepal’s request for grants, the then-Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, stated on April 22 that the BRI will contain both grants and commercial loans.

She went on to say that many of China’s projects in Nepal are part of the BRI strategy.

The Chinese Ambassador has often claimed that the Pokhara International Airport was built under the BRI framework.

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