Nepal becomes Shanghai dialogue partner

After surviving through the border blockade imposed by India that was in fact initially unhappy over the way he was 'unilaterally' elected to govern the Nepal state, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli enjoyed a red carpet welcome in India itself. And he is now in the midst of what many Nepali and Nepal experts believe to be a productive visit of the People's Republic of China. In response to widespread criticism at home for not taking a pro-active role in addressing the grievances of the Madhes-centric parties to neutralize the impact of a lengthy trade embargo by India, Prime Minister Oli had boasted of making Nepal self-reliant rather than bowing down to the hegemonic interventions by the world's largest democracy over an emerging democracy that it encircles on all three relatively accessible sides. Prime Minister Oli went a step further, may be with the intention to catch popular sentiments, in making a tall promise of getting the country rid of power outage within a year. He drew more criticism especially in the mainstream media and social media for promising to install cooking gas pipelines direct to the Nepali kitchens. Only time will tell, how realistic those promises by the Prime Minister were.
 But if experts are to be believed the only way Nepal can actually become self-reliant is to decrease the rising dependency upon India. And that is definitely in terms of trade as well as running the state of affairs of the country. And if diversification of trade is a way toward Nepal's self-dependency, Prime Minister Oli has taken a step forward toward that end. His election to the premiership without 'involvement, consultation and consent' of India was already a significant move by the Nepali leaders towards taking charge of the helm of Nepali affairs. By signing a historic transit and transport treaty as part of the 10-point agreement on Monday, Prime Minister Oli has provided Nepal an option as far as its third country trade is concerned. This will not only reduce Nepal's reliance on India, but also give landlocked Nepal access to the sea from China. At a press meet held at the Nepali Embassy on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Oli described the agreement as an 'unprecedented success' of his visit. He was however quick to make it clear that the agreement was not targeted against Nepal's otherwise traditional and only trade partner India. RSS