After the Nepali Congress raised “serious” objections over some of the provisions and contents of the proposed implementation plan of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a meeting of the top ruling party leaders on Tuesday evening decided to narrow down the differences so that a memorandum of understanding on BRI could be signed during the China visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli scheduled for the first week of December.

While the prime minister and his party, CPN-UML, want to make some sort of agreement or understanding on BRI during the visit, Congress, the key backer of Oli, however, has put forward strong reservations over some components of the BRI implementation plan forwarded by the Chinese side in early 2020. The Congress party is also against taking any loans to implement the projects due to the country’s heavy debt burden.

In order to narrow down the differences over the BRI implementation plan, top leaders of both parties and the ministers concerned are meeting every other day but have so far failed to reach a consensus, according to party leaders.

But both documents related to the BRI—the framework agreement signed between Nepal and China in May 2017 and the proposed implementation plan—have yet to be made public and remain outside the general discourse of the House of Representatives and other public spheres.

The government has not released these documents despite repeated demands from lawmakers of the Congress and the Rastriya Swatantra Party to make them public.

“We have demanded the document be made public and provided to us for broader discussion,” said Raj Kishore Yadav, chairman of the International Relations and Tourism Committee of the House of Representatives. “But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not provided it to us.”

“During the discussion at the committee in July-end with Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba, the committee had asked her to provide the documents for wider discussion, but the ministry has yet to do so,” said Yadav. “We will write to them again.”

“Without having the documents public, how can we initiate the debate and deliberation?” said Yadav.

He said that any document related to geopolitics or proposed by neighboring countries should be discussed in public spheres and inside the House to ensure transparent and fair discussion.

But without making both documents public, the Congress-UML government is preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on BRI during Prime Minister Oli’s visit to China, although the official date of the visit has yet to be announced.

Amid disagreement over how to approach the BRI and its implementation plan proposed by China, a political mechanism of the Congress and UML headed by Oli and Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba held talks in Baluwatar on Tuesday evening to discuss ways to narrow down the differences. They have also formed an informal task force of four members—two from each party—to resolve the differences, according to leaders.

The taskforce will soon be constituted and it will rework the BRI implementation plan by making some changes, which will then be sent to the Chinese side for their consent, two leaders of the Congress and the UML told the Post.

After the taskforce prepares a list of amendments Nepal needs to incorporate in the proposed BRI implementation plan, it will be finalised by Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel and Foreign Minister Rana.

“We will sign an MoU on BRI during the visit, which is just an understanding between Nepal and China based on our mutual understanding in the past,” Yubaraj Khatiwada, the economic adviser to Prime Minister Oli, told the Post.

The taskforce will separate certain components proposed in the BRI implementation plan, and will make significant revisions based on the understanding between Oli and Deuba during Tuesday's meeting.

Besides rejecting the loan-based funding modality of the BRI, Congress leaders have been saying that, for any loans, Nepal should stick to the same conditions as with multilateral and bilateral lenders.

“If 80 percent of grants provided by a particular country return to the same country, then why do we need the grant?” Pradeep Gyawali, deputy secretary general of the UML said at a press meet on Wednesday.

“We selected nine projects under the BRI framework but we have yet to finalise the funding modality,” he added.

One office bearer of the Nepali Congress said: “We have also objections to some of the contents of the BRI implementation plan because it looks like a political document and has some strategic and geopolitical connotations that we want to remove.”

The Congress leader added: “We want to focus on project-specific agreements during the visit and agreements that deal exclusively with infrastructure, connectivity and energy-related projects.”

Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa said his party wants to collaborate with big and neighbouring countries to develop large-scale projects in Nepal.

“At this moment, we want to develop such projects through grants to fulfill our development aspirations. We also want to see the execution of past accords and agreements so that we can move on to sign new ones,” Thapa said. “We also know that our partner in the government has differing views. But we will find a common ground with the UML on BRI.”

During the Tuesday evening meeting, Oli and UML leaders suggested that Nepal cannot backtrack on its past commitments with China and stressed the need for expediting BRI projects for the country’s economic development.

“No agreement originating from any country can be accepted if it clashes with our interests. There must be coherence between the BRI framework agreement signed in 2017 and the BRI implementation plan. But some provisions of the implementation plan do not align with the 2017 agreement. That’s why we seek significant changes,” a Congress office bearer told the Post requesting anonymity.

The task force will study the nitty-gritty of the BRI implementation plan, and will remove some provisions like the implementation of the Mutual Legal Assistance agreement signed in 2019 during Chinese President Xi’s Nepal visit. Other issues, including border security cooperation, climate change cooperation, making common positions between the two countries in international forums, and cooperation in the field of science and technology, may also be excluded from the revised draft, according to Congress leaders.

Bishnu Rimal, chief political adviser to Prime Minister Oli, said they are currently studying past agreements and pacts signed with China since Oli’s first visit to the northern neighbour in 2016. He said they are also working to secure previously committed Chinese aid.

Since 2008, China has announced over Rs80 billion in grants to Nepal on different occasions. A larger sum, 3 billion RMB (around Rs60 billion) was promised during President Xi’s state visit in October 2019.

“We failed to submit projects and programmes to the Chinese side to utilise the aid announced on different occasions. Now we are revisiting these matters and planning to pursue them during the prime minister’s visit. We are also reviewing the past agreements and accords particularly reached between Nepal and China after 2016 and taking an update on their implementation status,” said Rimal.

He also said that no new projects would be proposed during the visit, as the focus will be on reviewing and implementing past accords.

Foreign Minister Rana, who is set to visit China after a trip to Japan, has been tasked with making preparations for the prime minister’s visit, and wants to see some concrete developments ahead of her trip. Though an official announcement of her China visit has yet to be made, she is expected to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on November 29 in Beijing.

Pradeep Gwayali, UML deputy general secretary and former foreign minister, expressed hope that Congress and UML leaders will resolve their differences before the prime minister’s visit.

“During the visit, an agreement on the BRI will be signed, but no specific project will be finalised. After signing the agreement, negotiation on the funding modalities may start. Currently, none of the nine projects agreed under the BRI framework in 2018 has made any progress, as feasibility studies for some are still going on. I hope the modality of the BRI-related projects will be concluded and signed during the visit,” said Gyawali while urging the Congress not to create “unnecessary uproar over the BRI pact that was signed when the Congress was a governing partner”.