The process for agreement on the framework on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation has been delayed after China removed the word grant from the draft sent by Nepal.
Nepal had forwarded a draft Friday evening proposing that China would provide grant investment on the projects to be moved forward by the Government of Nepal. The Chinese representatives ostensibly read the draft only on Monday citing the weekend holidays.
A senior government official has told Setopati that the Chinese side sent back the proposal removing grant from the term ‘grant investment’ and keeping just investment. “We are still on dialogue discussing how to agree on that,” the official stated adding that there are little chances of immediate agreement on the issue.
Another member of the delegation led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has added that there is uncertainty about how to address the issue as the draft sent by China is against the agreement between Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML to only accept Chinese grant, and China has also made some additional amendments on small issues.
UML Chairman Oli and NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba earlier had approved the draft of the framework on BRI cooperation which stated that Nepal would only accept Chinese grant.
Nepal had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on BRI in 2017. Nepal and China were expected to sign the BRI Implementation Plan after that, but it has not happened yet.
After PM Oli’s China visit was finalized, a taskforce was formed to discuss the modality of the BRI implementation plan. The task force comprised the prime minister’s chief advisor Bishnu Rimal, economic and development advisor Yuba Raj Khatiwada, NC General Secretary Gagan Thapa, and advocate Semanta Dahal.
The task force made changes to the implementation plan and changed its name to Framework on BRI Cooperation.
