China has once again sought Nepal’s support for its newly announced Global Security Initiative (GSI) and Global Civilization Initiative (GCI).

The GCI, according to the Chinese government, is “an enrichment of the civilisational values deriving from the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, and represents both the latest achievements of world civilizations and the crystallization of China’s wisdom for the world.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has over the past decade announced a series of initiatives namely, Belt and Road (BRI) in 2013, Global Development Initiative (GDI) in 2021, GSI in 2022 and GCI in 2023 and urged the global community to join these concepts.

Nepal and China signed a framework agreement under the BRI in 2017, but not a single project has been negotiated or implemented. But Nepal has expressed its commitment to take support from the GDI, under which China has already launched two projects in Nepal, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the two GDI projects have been approved and being implemented by China’s external aid agency and the United Nations Development Program.

During a meeting with National Assembly chair Ganesh Prasad Timlsina on Tuesday, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress Zhao Leji said his country thanks Nepal for its active response to and support for the GDI and welcomes Nepal's support for and participation in the GSI and the GCI to jointly promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world at large.

Timilsina held talks with Zhao on Monday evening in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People. Chinese leaders have repeatedly asked Nepal to support the GSI, but Nepali leaders, officials and diplomats have turned down the proposal as Nepal’s foreign policy bars it from joining any security or military alliances.

Nepal perceives the GSI as a military alliance. Its concept paper says the GSI “aims to eliminate the root causes of international conflicts, improve global security governance, encourage joint international efforts to bring more stability and certainty to a volatile and changing era, and promote durable peace and development in the world.” 

The essence of this new vision of security is to advocate a concept of common security, respecting and safeguarding the security of every country; a holistic approach, maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains and enhancing security governance in a coordinated way; a commitment to cooperation, bringing about security through political dialogue and peaceful negotiation; and pursuit of sustainable security, resolving conflicts through development and eliminating the breeding ground for insecurity, said the Chinese foreign ministry, we believe security will only be firmly established and sustainable when it is underpinned by morality, justice and the right ideas. 

“We have already communicated our position to the Chinese side clearly,” said a Nepali diplomat.

Regarding the GDI, Nepal is already part of it. Then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba agreed to a Chinese request made during the official visit to Kathmandu in March 2022 by the then Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi.

Under the GDI framework two projects are already in progress. One is the Nepal Smiling Children Project where China Foundation for Rural Development provides food for 3,600 children from poor communities in Kathmandu. The project is funded by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), the Ministry of Commerce of China and the China Foundation for Rural Development, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

The other project is ‘Support to Schools and Communities in Remote Areas for Pandemic Prevention and Green Recovery’. As its name suggests, the project will assist schools and communities in remote areas for pandemic prevention and achieving prosperity through economic recovery measures aligned with long-term climate change and sustainability objectives.

This particular project will be executed by CIDCA, Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and the UNDP. According to the Chinese foreign ministry, CIDCA will conduct 1000 Human Resources Training Projects covering all priority areas of the GDI to benefit all members of the ‘Group of Friends of the GDI’ according to their needs.

“On the GSI, our position is very much clear and on the GCI, we have not received any form of communication from Beijing,” a senior foreign ministry official said, adding, “we know about the GCI, but we have so far not received any formal request to join it.”

According to Chinese government mouthpiece, China Daily, the GCI advocates respect for the diversity of civilizations; upholding the common values of humanity; the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations; and international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.

On March 15, Chinese President Xi during the ‘CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting’ in Beijing pitched the GCI concept while expressing the Chinese Communist Party’s “sincere readiness to work with political parties of all countries to advance modernization with distinct national features, promote inter-civilization exchanges and mutual learning around the world and build a community with a shared future for mankind,” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

At the meeting Tuesday, Zhao said that during the 2019 Nepal visit by President Xi, the leaders of the two countries spoke in unison to raise the China-Nepal relationship to a strategic partnership of friendship from generation to generation for development and prosperity.

“China is willing to work with Nepal to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and promote the building of an even closer community of shared future between China and Nepal,” Zhao told Timilsina.

“China appreciates Nepal's consistent and firm adherence to the one-China policy, its valuable support on issues concerning China's core interests and major concerns, and its commitment to not allowing any force to use Nepal's territory for anti-China activities. China firmly supports Nepal in safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and respects the development path chosen by the Nepali government and people in light of their own national conditions,” the Chinese news agency Xinuha said, quoting Zhao.

The two sides should build and maintain infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, aviation, ports and power grids, continue to build a trans-Himalayan three-dimensional connectivity network, and deepen cooperation in trade and investment, industrial parks and new energy, Zhao told Timilsina, according to Xinhua.

Zhao also said the National People's Congress of China is willing to continue to strengthen exchanges at all levels with the Nepali National Assembly to consolidate the social and public [opinion] foundation for China-Nepal friendly cooperation; to issue and approve legal documents conducive to the development of bilateral relations in a timely manner to provide legal protection for practical cooperation in various fields among others.

Timilsina, at the meeting, expressed hopes that the BRI will bring tangible development results to Nepal.

“The National Assembly of Nepal is willing to strengthen friendly exchanges with the National People's Congress of China and play a positive role in the legislature in promoting bilateral cooperation in infrastructure, trade, tourism, culture, education, and other fields,” said Timilsina, according to Xinuha.