Visiting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu has said that the United States sees relation with Nepal and other South Asian countries separately from that with India.
"We have very good relation with India. Our relation has different dimensions. But our relation with other countries will be mere bureaucratic if we keep other countries in the same basket together with India," Lu said during an interaction with journalists Friday evening.
The comments of Lu, who started his diplomatic career with a posting in Pakistan and served for six years in Delhi, seem to have come to assure those in Nepal who feel the United States has outsourced its Nepali policy to India in recent times.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Kelly Keiderling, who is accompanying Lu during the Nepal visit, then revealed that Lu told her after he was appointed assistant secretary that the United States should keep India and other countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Maldives separately to ensure that other countries are not neglected and bilateral relation with those countries become stronger.
"Lu said he had decided we need to divide from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives because naturally India gets too much attention from our political leadership. That is no surprise. As we United States want to boost this relationship with India. Because Ambassador Lu has known this region for a long time he said 'I know if we keep India together with Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh then these countries are going to lose bureaucratically,'" Keiderling said.
She assured that the United States now will not keep Nepal and other South Asian countries together with India. The assurance seemed to be an acknowledgement that the United States has looked at the relation with South Asian countries including Nepal through Indian lens in recent years.
The Nepali people were particularly aggrieved when the United States maintained silence about the Indian blockade imposed over Indian dissatisfaction with the Constitution Nepal promulgated in 2015 despite the blockade compounding matters for the country reeling from the Gorkha Earthquake less than six months back.
Nepal moved closer to China after the blockade and the United States, which is looking to contain China, is now focusing on relationship with Nepal to reduce Chinese influence.
"Nepal is a big country and two bigger countries are its neighbors. United States wishes that Nepal remain independent and sovereign," Lu said. "On the other hand, Nepal is a country with lots of potential. We want to help in converting that potential to development of all and want to increase US investment…We, as Americans, need to pay more attention here. We have to do more businesses investment and trading with Nepal."
Lu revealed that he talked about the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) with Nepali leaders during his meeting with them and expressed hope about it being endorsed after listening to the leaders.
He did not set a deadline for endorsement of MCC but said there should not be further delay pointing that it is already late and added the money can go elsewhere if there is too much delay.
He stated that he feels that there are some disinformation about MCC in Nepal but ruled out external reasons for that . "I don't feel Nepal should damage relation with one country to improve relation with another. America wants that Nepal builds good relation with China, India, Japan, Britain, the European Union and develops."
