KATHMANDU, March 17: Chairman of ruling Nepal Communist Party Pushpa Kamal Dahal is leaving for the United States today evening for the treatment of his ailing wife, Sita Dahal.

Dahal and his wife are flying for the United States at 5 pm today, according to Dahal's private secretariat.

She will be admitted to Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States for the treatment, who has been battling against Progressive Supranuclear Palsy for the past few years.

Daughter Ganga and son-in-law Jeevan Acharya are accompanying the Dahal couple during their visit.

The visit comes nearly two months after the former prime minister landed into controversy over his statement on the Venezuelan crisis causing diplomatic tension between Kathmandu and Washington DC.

Following futile attempts to convince Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro to step down to end a long standing political crisis, the United States had unilaterally recognized Juan Guaido as the republic’s interim president in January, undermining the elected government. While the US and its allies in Europe had welcomed the move, other countries including Russia and China stood against it.

Reacting to the political development in the oil-rich country in a strong-worded a statement, Dahal had described the act of “US and its allies” an “unacceptable intrusion in internal affairs and an attempt of imperialist coup”. 

The statement rattled Nepal’s relations with the US with the latter calling top government official to clarify the government’s official position on the matter. The US Department of State had separately summoned Nepal’s ambassador to Washington DC Arjun Karki for clarification. 

Responding to US concerns, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued a statement stressing the need for resolving the political crisis in Venezuela without “external interference”, echoing Dahal’s stance, albeit in a toned-down form.

 
• pushpakamaldahal
 
• united_states_visit
 
• sita_dahal
 
• treatment