Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota has directed the government to inform the House of Representatives about the status of the implementation of the US government’s State Partnership Program.

After lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties voiced their concerns about the status of the SPP, Sapkota directed the government to apprise the House of Nepal’s position on the SPP.

After weeks of controversy over Nepal’s participation in the SPP, the government on June 21 decided not to be part of the US programme.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, is yet to write to the US about the government decision on the SPP.

Some lawmakers including Dev Gurung of the CPN (Maoist Centre), Jhala Nath Khanal of the CPN (Unified Socialist) and Bhim Rawal of the main opposition CPN-UML have demanded that the government must inform the US government regarding its decision on the SPP.

“It has been over a month since the government decided not to be part of the SPP but what has stopped it from writing to the US government,” said Khanal while speaking in parliament as he called on the government to write to the US immediately.

“The decision taken by the government on the SPP and the status of its implementation should be informed to the House,” said Sapkota while issuing a ruling to the government. “My attention has been drawn to the issue, so I instruct the government to inform the House regarding the SPP.”

It was the US embassy in Kathmandu that said that Nepal became part of the SPP in 2019 after two requests in 2015 and 2017.

Political parties that initially resorted to a blame-game then made a common voice that Nepal must not participate in the SPP, arguing that it has security and military components and being part of the program would lead to American boots on the Nepali ground.

While making it clear that the SPP does not have any security and military components, it was the US embassy that said any country can pull out of the SPP simply by writing a letter, as Belarus had done becoming the only country to make such a move.

On Wednesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sewa Lamsal said that the ministry “is still studying the SSP.”

“We are studying the various aspects of the SPP. We have received some facts and evidence that Nepal has already received some assistance under the programme. We are also studying in what areas, including disaster management, the assistance was received,” said Lamsal.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also written to the Ministry of Defense seeking details of the assistance that Nepal has received from the US under the SPP arrangements.

The Nepal Army had requested the US in October 2015 seeking various kinds of support for disaster risk reduction. In response, the US government had provided some humanitarian assistance and two sky trucks to the Nepal Army under the SPP that began in 1993. As per a US report published in 2019, Nepal was included in the SPP that year.