Top American official in Nepal

By TON Nepal

On Thursday for two-day visit the US assistant state secretary for South and Central Asia Affairs has arrived to Kathmandu. Five weeks after Nepal’s decision that it won’t be part of the United States’ State Partnership Program (SPP).

This instant visit to Nepal since November previous year and first since Nepal’s Parliament approved the US$500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact (MCC) after months of disagreement. According to the Ministry of Nepalese Foreign Affairs, the US assistant state secretary is ready to hold meetings with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister on Friday.

Though the US assistant state secretary visit is said to be for handing out an award stated by the US embassy in Kathmandu. However, actually he aims to moderate anxieties surrounding the State Partnership Program (SPP) which has become a political controversy matter in Nepal.

After disagreement over Nepal’s contribution in the SPP, the government on June 21 decided that it won’t contribute in the system, which has security and military mechanisms and contribution in it could put American boots on the Nepali ground. It was the US embassy which made it public that Nepal was accepted in the SPP in 2019 after two appeals in 2015 and 2017.

In 2015, the State Partnership Program (SPP) was not chosen in the Indo-Pacific Strategy and only dedicated to disaster risk reduction, salvage operation, and calamity preparation. Later in 2019, a US Defense Department’s reported that Nepal as a country newly inducted to the SPP.

The SPP epic rose in Kathmandu after the visit of Commanding General of United States Army Pacific in the second week of June this year. As soon as Gen enfolded up his Nepal visit on June 12, a six-page draft on the SPP was dripped to some sections of the media. The US embassy sharply reacted, calling it false. Nonetheless the controversy did not die down.

The International Relations Committee of Parliament called Nepalese Foreign Minister and Chief of the Army Staff General to make Nepal’s position clear on the SPP. Both foreign minister and PM expressed the House committee that Nepal has not made any appeal to the US to become a partner in the SPP and as per Nepal’s stated foreign policy, Nepal will not be part of any military pact.

Nonetheless a Nepal Army dispatch dated October 27, 2015 to then US ambassador, which was leaked to the media, presented Nepal had wished for contribution in the SPP. Under pressure now the incumbent prime minster government in a sensitive attitude decided not to be part of the SPP.

The US embassy maintains that participating in the SPP is any country’s sovereign decision and a country can simply write to the US government if it wishes to terminate the partnership. The Foreign Ministry, however, is yet to write to the US even more than a month since the government decision on the SPP.

On Wednesday, the International Relations Committee of the Parliament decided to ask the government why it did not write a letter to the US government regarding its decision on the SPP despite repeated calls from party leaders.

The chair of the House committee said that why has the letter not been sent to the US despite the government's decision that Nepal will not be part of the SPP. We have not received any documents related to the SPP. Now, amid highly charged debates over the SPP the trip of US assistant state secretary to Nepal has irritated curiosity in Kathmandu. Nepali ambassador to the United States, however, says the trip is the continuation of high-level exchanges from both sides and US officials are trying to assure the prominence of Nepal in South Asia.

Conversely, it is widely believed that the ongoing controversy over the SPP in Nepal is being seen from a geopolitical angle’ as the issue has been blown out of proportion in Nepal. The US assistant state secretary made headlines in Nepal in February after he held separate telephone talks with Prime Minister, CPN (Maoist Centre) chair and CPN-UML chair with regard to the MCC compact.

According to officials and politicians familiar with the conversations, the message from Washington was it would be forced to review its Nepal policy should the MCC compact fail parliamentary ratification. Nepal ratified the compact on February 27 after attaching an interpretative declaration. It was described that some sections in Nepal are trying to make the SPP an agenda for upcoming elections, which is natural.

Ever since the passage of the MCC compact, there has been a flurry of visits from the US, but there has been a lack of correspondence from the Nepali side. The controversy over the SPP arose weeks before Prime Minister proposed visit to the US.

The PM was originally supposed to travel to Washington in mid-July in the first official visit by a sitting prime minister in two decades. However, the visit became uncertain after the SPP ruckus. Earlier this month, the Foreign Ministry said the prime minister’s visit “is expected” but last week it said the visit is yet to be confirmed.

On Friday, a former foreign minister and chair of the Janata Samajbadi Party, an alliance partner of the incumbent government, said that the coalition partners advised the prime minister visit to the US should be on hold in view of various reasons including internal situation of the country.

It is not that the prime minister’s visit will not take place or that he will not go, but we have put this visit on hold for now because of internal reasons. The US assistant state secretary is arriving in Nepal weeks after Nepal Army Chief Sharma visited the US where he held talks with top American military officials.

US assistant state secretary visit, especially after the MCC compact’s passage is being considered vital, as the US’ renewed interest in Nepal given its geopolitical location, with a view to expanding its partnership with a country with which it shares more than 7 decades of diplomatic ties.

China, Nepal’s northern neighbor, didn’t hide its displeasure when the US was pressing for the MCC compact’s passage, and in the aftermath, at least two high-level visits have taken place from Beijing one in March by Chinese Foreign Minister and another head of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, formerly this month.

US officials are looking for more and direct engagements with Nepal following the ratification of the MCC. The interfering has started after the MCC compact’s ratification in Nepal, the Americans seem to be feeling uncomfortable. The visit may focus on this issue as well and the US top official aims to assuage concerns surrounding it.

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