On Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry of Nepal, released a detailed 10-page framework for the Belt and Road Cooperation agreement signed between Nepal and China during Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli’s recent visit to China.
The agreement, signed on December 4 in Beijing by the Foreign Secretaries of Nepal and China introduces ‘aid investment’, that includes both grant and loan investment, in place of just ‘grant investment.’
The signing of the framework, originally planned for December 3, was delayed after China removed the term “grant” from a draft submitted by Nepal on November 29. The draft had proposed that China would offer grant funding for projects initiated by the Government of Nepal.
Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba had previously approved the draft framework for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation, which emphasizing that Nepal would only accept Chinese grant.
Nepal signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2017. Both countries were expected to sign the BRI Implementation Plan after that, but it did not happen for a long time.
Following the finalization of Prime Minister Oli’s visit to China, a task force was established to discuss the modality of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) implementation plan. The task force included 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 amended the implementation plan and renamed it the Framework for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Cooperation.