Nepal-China : Unique Friendship (With Video)
Kathmandu, 25 September 2022 Saturday/Nepal is located in the Himalayas and contains eight of the world’s ten highest peaks. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural state. UNESCO has identified ten historical sites of Nepal as World Heritage Sites which makes the country paradise for tourists.
Nepal is a land linked country bordering with China’s Tibet in the North and India in other 3 sides. Nepal and China are neighboring countries since the ancient times and have more than 1400 KM border area. These two countries have shared intimate and co-operative religious, cultural, economic, social and political relations for centuries. After the establishment of new China in 1949, the diplomatic relation between Nepal and China began on 1st August 1955 after a series of talk between the supreme leaders of both countries.
In this background, China has been providing various supports for the development of Nepal. China has been focusing mainly on the development of infrastructures of Nepal like road construction, extension of customs services in Nepal-China border, hydropower, education, health, bilateral trade and many more. In the southern part of Nepal various infrastructures have been constructed under the financial and technological assistance of India. As a neighbor of two big countries, Nepal benefits a lot from the regional co-operation.
“Several glory projects” in Nepal including Pokhara Regional International Airport, Gautam Buddha International Airport, Bheri Babai Diversion tunnel are constructed or under construction with the technological support and fund from China. China assisted Nepal to construct quality and broad road between the borders of these two countries, improving the living condition of local people. With the closer cooperation between the two countries, some western media are trying to undermine the relationship between Nepal and China, trying to influence China’s investment in Nepal through false news propaganda.
In addition to this, some organizations and Nepali media have been disseminating news and staging protest programs against China in Capital city Kathmandu and bordering areas of Nepal & India. Some INGOs funded by western countries are trying their best to spoil the historical bilateral Nepal-China relationship citing border issues. They have also been misinterpreting the Chinese support including BRI and other project running in Nepal as Chinese strategy to intervene over the Nepal’s sovereignty.
However, the major objectives of non-government organization is to help for the social change and development through education, health, sanitation, drinking water, awareness, women empowerment etc. Therefore, Non-government organizations running program in Nepal have to think over about their objectives rather than to spoil the bilateral relations and regional unity stability and development.
Expert’s opinions.
Senior writer and diplomat Hiranyalal Shrestha says that there is no boarder dispute between Nepal and China. He said that India has been diverting the issue of Nepal’s border encroachment by India rising anti-China propaganda through INGOs in Kathmandu and other places.
Diplomat Shrestha says that because the border map of Nepal and China is very scientific and technological, no country can cross that border. He says, “If the border between Nepal and China is broken or damaged for any reason, there is a provision that the representatives of both countries will work together to manage it, and China also agrees on this matter.”
CPN-UML leader and former Nepali Ambassador to China Tank Prasad Karki says that there is no problem between Nepal and China. He said that the border dispute and the demonstration, which is done with the intention of breaking the Nepal-China relationship and dragging Nepal to another axis, are just like water bubbles and there is no future them. Karki says, ‘There are no problems between Nepal and China at the state level.’ If there is a problem, we can solve it. It is useless to take interest by the third party in this regard.
Former Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal and former Nepali Ambassador to China Leelamani Paudyal says, ‘The Nepal-China border line is prepared from the coordinates of latitude and longitude. Therefore, both countries have records even up to the meter. According to Poudyal, there is a provision in the border treaty that if there is any problem on the border, both countries will resolve it through negotiations. .
Paudyal says, ‘Without using the rules and provisions of the border treaty, it is undesirable to have anti-China activities by non-governmental organizations and foreign and domestic media while not saying anything against countries with border problems on sensitive issues such as borders.’ The government should control it. I think that some interest group have been trying to spoil the friendship between the two countries.
Chhaka Bahadur Lama, a member of the House of Representatives of Humla district, says that there was no border problem between Nepal and China after 1962. According to Lama, the area where there is a rumor that China has encroached Nepal’s border is near pillar number 12 of Limi Lapcha area of his district and there is no border dispute in that area. Lama says, “After there was a rumor that the border had been breached, the people’s representatives of the area including me and the task force formed by the government went to the area and observed. We didnot find encroachment”
Lama said that, it is a sad thing to make the same accusation against those who cross the border and the same accusation against those who don’t. I do not know that China has crossed the border in my district.
conclusion
Nepal and China who share social, cultural, geographical and religious closeness are developing high trade relation. Extending from East to West, both countries have been sharing common vision. We convey our best wishes to the people of both countries for their peace and prosperity as well as for Asia’s prosperity.
