Government Spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokula Baskota has said the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has already entered parliamentary process.
Addressing the weekly press meeting on Thursday, Minister Baskota revealed that MCC Compact will be presented to the full House soon and claimed it will be passed by the House. He added there is no need to spread rumors that MCC is related to military affairs, and challenged the critics to point out the clause that says it is related to military strategy.
He also clarified that the government does not believe that the Indo-Pacific Strategy has been formulated by America to encircle China as mentioned in the political report submitted in the ruling CPN's central committee meeting.
"There are different ideologies inside CPN. Such diverse thoughts can come in a party. But we do not have any interest in alliance of any superpower. We cannot also remain worried who will encircle whom," he stated. "Government and party are different. Different ideologies and viewpoints can be discussed inside the party but the government has a single policy."
Pointing that Nepal has accepted conditions even when receiving grants or loans from China and India, he claimed that a few persons have raised controversy about MCC to remain in news.
Ruling CPN had hotly debated MCC during the recent standing committee meeting with the erstwhile Maoists and those from Madhav Kumar Nepal faction opposing it saying it should only be passed if it becomes clear that it is not part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy floated by America.
The US embassy in Kathmandu later issued a 10-point statement clarifying that the MCC is not part of military affairs.
The press statement, which it said was in response to a large number of queries from Nepali citizens, politicians, and members of the media about the MCC, claimed that every Nepali government since 2012 has been in favor of the MCC and that there is no military component to the compact.
