KATHMANDU, June 18: At a time when the erstwhile KP Oli-led UML government is being criticized for agreeing to the United States’ State Partnership Program (SPP) three years ago in 2019, UML lawmaker and former foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali has claimed that the political leadership including the then Prime Minister Oli and other leaders were unaware of the correspondence between Nepal Army and the US army over SPP.

CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli was the Prime Minister of the country in 2015 when the Nepal Army wrote to the US seeking its participation in the SPP.

Speaking at a program in the capital on Saturday, Gyawali said that the Nepal Army had secretly held correspondence with the US without the knowledge of the political leadership of the country. He said that the army had written the letter without informing the political leadership in the transitional period after the new constitution was drafted in 2015. He said there was no written evidence that the army had engaged the ministries or political leaders concerned.

According to Gyawali, the army had sought the opinion of the Ministry of Defense on the issue of participating in the SPP and the Ministry of Defense had also given permission without properly understanding it.

The Indo-Pacific report in 2019 listed Nepal and Sri Lanka as new members of the SPP, after which the Oli-led government came to know about the issue, Gyawali claimed. He said that the government then formed a task force to study the issue and put it on hold. 

Earlier, Chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal accused the government led by UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli of agreeing to the United States’ Strategic Partnership Program (SPP).

He said that the KP Oli-led government had signed the SPP agreement in 2019 and every Nepali needs to understand it. Dahal said that a false and hypocritical propaganda of nationalism was being spread now.

 
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