KATHMANDU, Dec 7: General Secretary of the Nepali Congress (NC) Gagan Thapa has defended the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Framework Agreement between Nepal and China, saying that the agreement is in the fundamental interest of Nepal.
Addressing the meeting of the Koshi Province chapter of the NC on Saturday, Thapa asserted that the framework agreement has taken the NC’s suggestions under consideration.
“When China presented the BRI proposal, it revealed plans to make a big umbrella agreement called the BRI Implementation Plan,” Thapa said, “On behalf of the NC, we politely said: There are many ambiguities in that proposal, therefore, it should not be advanced.”
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He said that China’s proposal had clearly stated that they were not in the interest of Nepal-China relations. “It was not in the interest of Nepal or the Nepal-China relations as we envision it,” Thapa said, “Hence, we did not accept the proposal.”
According to Thapa, Nepal made its counter-proposal to China after receiving the initial proposal. “We wanted the agreement to be just as Nepal wanted,” he said. He claimed that the Chinese side insisted that the BRI Implementation Plan should be signed but the NC did not accept the proposal.
However, he said that there was no agreement on the fundamentals of the agreement. “But while not accepting, did we compromise on our basic things or not? Rest assured, we did not. I urge my friends in the NC to understand that the party has a clear view on this topic,” he said.
Lawmaker Thapa said that Nepal is currently not in a position to take loans from any country and build projects.
