The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released the full text of the Framework for Belt and Road Cooperation, which was signed during Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s official China visit last week.
Foreign secretaries of the two countries signed the framework in Beijing on December 4, keeping aid investment, which includes both grant and loan investment, in place of grant investment.
The framework could not be signed on December 3 after China removed the word grant from the draft sent by Nepal. Nepal had forwarded a draft November 29 proposing that China would provide grant investment on the projects to be moved forward by the Government of Nepal.
Prime Minister (PM) and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and Nepali Congress (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 did not happen for a long time.
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.
The two sides also issued a 12-point joint statement during PM Oli's visit.
Read the full text of the framework here.
