काठमाडौं । प्रधानमन्त्री केपी ओलीको अन्तरवार्ता हङकङबाट प्रकाशित हुने ‘साउथ चाइना मर्निङ पोस्ट’ले पहिलो पृष्ठमा प्रकाशित भएको छ । मंगलबारको संस्करणमा ओलीको अन्तरवार्ताले निकै महत्व पाएको छ भने भारतमा सोही अन्तरवार्तालाई लिएर हलचल भएको छ । भारतीय मिडियाले सो अन्तरवार्ताका आधारमा ओलीले चीनसँग गहिरो सम्बन्ध बनाउँदै भारतसँग बढी फाइदा लिने रणनीति अख्तियार गरिरहेको विश्लेषण प्रकाशित गरेका छन् । अन्तरवार्तामा प्रधानमन्त्री ओलीले भनेका छन्, ‘भारतसँग हाम्रो कनेक्टिभिटी राम्रो छ, खुला सीमा छ । यी सब ठिकै छन्, हामी कनेक्टिभिटी अझ बढाउँछौं तर हाम्रा दुई छिमेकी छन् भन्ने कुरालाई हामी बिर्सिदैनौं ।’ ओलीले आफूहरु कुनै एक देशसँग निर्भर नहरने पनि अन्तरवार्तामा प्रष्ट पारेका छन् । उनले भनेका छन्, ‘हामी कुनै एक देशसँग निर्भर हुन चाहँदैनौं, केवल एउटा विकल्पमा रहँदैनौं ।’ भारतसँगको सम्बन्धका बारेमा चर्चा गर्दै उनले भनेका छन्, ‘भारतसँग हाम्रो सम्बन्ध राम्रै छ । भारतमा केही तत्वले भ्रम सिर्जना गर्ने कोसिस गरे तर भारतीय नेताहरुले भविष्यमा त्यस प्रकारको हस्तक्षेप नहुने र एक अर्काको स्वायत्तताको सम्मान गर्ने आश्वासन दिएका छन् ।’ प्रधानमन्त्री ओलीले भारतसँगको सम्बन्धलाई समयानुकुल परिमार्जन गर्ने चाहना पनि प्रकट गरेका छन् । ओलीको सो अन्तरवार्ता प्रकाशित भएलगत्तै नवभारत टाइम्स, अमर उजालालगायतका भारतीय अखबारका अनलाइन संस्करणमा विश्लेषणत्मक समाचार प्रकाशित भएका छन् । ती समाचारमा ओलीले चीनलाई देखाएर भारतसँग फाइदा लिन खोजेको टिप्पणी गरिएको छ । यस्तो छापिएको थियो साउथ चाइना मर्निङ पोस्टमा अोलीको अन्तरवार्ता

NEPAL LEADER VOWS TO REVIVE CHINESE DAM PROJECT, OPEN TO REVIEW PACT OVER NEPALESE SOLDIERS IN INDIA

Nepal’s new communist prime minister will restart a Chinese-led US$2.5 billion hydropower project that was pulled by the previous government considered friendly towards India, and wants to increase infrastructure connectivity with Beijing to ease the country’s reliance on New Delhi. He also wants to “update” relations with India “in keeping with the times” and favours a review of all special provisions of Indo-Nepal relations, including the long-established practice of Nepalese soldiers serving India’s armed forces. “Political prejudice or pressure from rival companies may have been instrumental in scrapping of the project. But for us, hydropower is a main focus and come what may, we will revive the Budhi Gandaki project,” Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) leader Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli told the This Week in Asia in an exclusive interview, his first since taking office on Thursday. The contract to build a dam on the Budhi Gandaki river in central-western Nepal turned into a political hot potato after it was awarded last June to China’s Gezhouba Group by a government headed by Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, as part of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” that Nepal joined the previous month. The next prime minister, from the Nepali Congress, scrapped the project, in a move seen as a concession to pressure from India, which has been wary of a growing Chinese footprint in what it sees as its sphere of influence. Oli’s UML and the Maoist Centre formed the Left alliance that swept to power in this landmark election, Nepal’s first after the promulgation of its new constitution restructuring the Himalayan country as a federal republic. The two communist parties are also inching towards a merger, which China has always advocated. “Our petroleum usage has been increasing but we import all of it. We urgently need to develop hydropower to reduce our dependence on petroleum,” Oli said. Almost all of Nepal’s petroleum is imported from India. Its fuel import bill has tripled in the past five years, adding to the ballooning trade deficit with India, which stood at around US$6 billion in the last financial year (July 15, 2016 to July 15, 2017). The trade deficit with India constitutes about 80 per cent of Nepal’s overall deficit. Nepal’s emphasis on hydropower has made it an arena of shadow boxing between the two regional giants. India’s GMR and SJVN have been given the contracts for two other dam projects while China’s Three Gorges Corporation is to develop another. Oli’s rift with New Delhi, which it had blamed for engineering his government’s fall in August 2016, has been growing in recent years. As prime minister between 2015 and 2016, he locked horns with India over Nepal’s new constitution, which New Delhi resisted on the ground that it discriminated against people of the southern plains of Nepal adjoining India who are of Indian ancestry. When India retaliated with a crippling blockade of the landlocked country, he reached out to China to overcome the crisis and inked several vital agreements. He later cancelled a visit by Nepal’s president to India and recalled the Nepalese ambassador to the country, in rare acts of defiance by a Nepalese leader against the dominant southern neighbour. In this election, Oli successfully tapped the groundswell of anti-India sentiment in Nepal as a result of the blockade, lacing his stump speeches with rhetoric against India that fetched his party 121 seats in the 275-member Parliament. But back in power, he is weighing his words more carefully. “We’ve always had excellent relations with India. There were some elements in the Indian establishment that caused some misunderstanding, but Indian leaders have assured us that there will be no interference in the future and we will respect each other’s sovereign rights,” he said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, has been trying to mend fences. He has called Oli three times since he won, and sent External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj this month to reinforce the message of cooperation. Delhi is particularly concerned about growing Chinese interests in Nepal, the latest South Asian country that appears to be drifting away from India’s control. Maldives is now run by a man who makes no bones about courting China and playing it off against India, while massive Chinese investments have deeply entrenched Chinese interests in Sri Lanka. But despite the careful diplomatese of peace and goodwill with India, Oli is keen to broaden his options by deepening ties with China to get more leverage in his dealings with Delhi. “We have great connectivity with India and an open border. All that’s fine and we’ll increase connectivity even further, but we can’t forget that we have two neighbours,” Oli said. “We don’t want to depend on one country or have one option.” He sees infrastructure development as an important means to narrow the distance with China, whose physical remoteness compared with next-door India is a hindrance to deeper Sino-Nepal relations. “Technology allows us to reimagine distance. Can you believe that in 1970, it used to take me two days to reach Kathmandu from my home in eastern Nepal? “Once China brings its rail network up to Shigatse and then Kyirong in Tibet, it should be easy to extend it to Nepal. It’s lower altitude than Tibet, and the terrain is actually sloping all the way down from Kyirong. Apart from that, three roads are under construction connecting China and Nepal, which should be ready in a couple of years. If we can connect this railway network to our east-west rail project, it can revolutionise China-India trade, with Nepal in the middle” he said. China aims to extend the Qinghai-Tibet railway to the Nepal border by 2020 and has expressed interest in extending it to Kathmandu. Kyirong in Tibet is about 25km from Nepal’s Rasuwagadhi border transit point, which is 50km from Kathmandu. The Nepalese government is understood to be working on a plan to build a road tunnel between Rasuwagadhi and Kathmandu that will radically shorten the travel time. Apart from infrastructure and power, cyber connectivity is also among Oli’s thrust areas. Nepal last month ended India’s monopoly in the field by joining forces with China to offer internet services to its people after laying optical fibre cables between Kyirong and Rasuwagadhi.

The loss of a captive internet market is a sign of the increasing competition India is facing in the country it once dominated as China makes deep inroads. The Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950, which Nepalese nationalists believe compromises Nepal’s ability to pursue an independent defence and foreign policy, is also being revised. But despite their recent differences, India and Nepal share deep historical and cultural bonds, apart from an open border that allows millions to freely work and travel in each other’s territory. More than 25,000 Nepalese serve in the Indian Army and another 20,000 Nepalese are in Indian paramilitary and police forces, an arrangement that offends some in Nepal.

“This should be internally and mutually discussed and corrected, if necessary. We live in a new world, and Nepal is starting a new journey, we have to update whatever is considered outdated and bring it in line with the modern era,” Oli said. साउथ चाइना मर्निङ पोस्टमा प्रधानमन्त्री अोलीको अन्तरवार्ता छापिएपछि भारतीय मिडिया  नवभारत टाइम्सले लेखेको समाचार

नेपाल के पीएम केपी ओली बोले, चीन के साथ रिश्ते गहरे कर भारत से लेंगे अधिक फायदा

नेपाल के नए प्रधानमंत्री केपी ओली ने कहा है कि वह चीन के साथ संबंधों को प्रगाढ़ कर नए अवसर तलाशेंगे और भारत के साथ समझौतों में अधिक फायदा लेंगे। चीन की तरफ झुकाव रखने वाले ओली ने कहा कि वह बदलते समय के साथ भारत के साथ संबंधों में भी बदलाव करना चाहते हैं। ओली भारत-नेपाल संबंधों के सभी आयामों की समीक्षा करने के पक्ष में हैं, जिसमें भारतीय सेना में नेपाली जवानों के सेवा देने की काफी पहले से चली आ रही परंपरा भी शामिल है । हॉन्ग कॉन्ग के साउथ चाइना मॉर्निंग पोस्ट अखबार को दिए इंटरव्यू में सीपीएन-यूएमएल के अध्यक्ष ओली ने कहा, \'भारत के साथ हमारी बेहतरीन कनेक्टिविटी है, खुले बॉर्डर हैं। यह सब तो ठीक है, हम कनेक्टिविटी और बढ़ाएंगे भी लेकिन हम यह नहीं भूल सकते कि हमारे दो पड़ोसी हैं। हम किसी एक देश पर ही निर्भर नहीं रहना चाहते। केवल एक ऑप्शन पर नहीं।\' भारत के साथ संबंधों को कैसे आगे बढ़ाया जाएगा इसके बारे में पूछे जाने पर ओली ने कहा, \'भारत के साथ हमारे रिश्ते हमेशा मजबूत रहे हैं। भारत में कुछ तत्वों ने गलतफहमी पैदा की लेकिन भारतीय नेताओं ने हमें आश्वासन दिया है कि भविष्य में ऐसी कोई दखलअंदाजी नहीं होगी और हम एक-दूसरे के स्वायत्ता के अधिकारों का सम्मान करते हैं।\' 65 साल के ओली इससे पहले 11 अक्टूबर, 2015 से 3 अगस्त 2016 तक नेपाल की कमान संभाल चुके हैं। नेपाल में हुए मधेसी आंदोलन के बाद ओली को इस्तीफा देना पड़ा था। दूसरी बार प्रधानमंत्री पद की शपथ लेने से पहले ओली से भारत की विदेश मंत्री सुषमा स्वराज ने नेपाल में मुलाकात की थी। उनके अलावा भारत के वाम दलों के नेता भी ओली से मिले थे। प्रधानमंत्री मोदी ने ओली से फोन पर बात की थी। भारतीय सेना में नेपालियों के सेवा देने के मुद्दे पर ओली ने कहा, \'अगर जरूरत हुई तो इस पर आंतरिक रूप से आपस में चर्चा की जाएगी और सुधार किए जाएंगे। दुनिया बदल चुकी है और नेपाल नए सफर की शुरुआत कर रहा है। हम घिसी-पिटी परंपराओं को घसीटने की बजाए उनमें बदलाव करेंगे।\' ओली ने कहा कि पिछली सरकार द्वारा ठुकराए गए चीन सरकार के 2.5 बिलियन डॉलर हाइड्रोप्रॉजेक्ट को वह रिवाइव करेंगे। सीपीएन-यूएमएल के अध्यक्ष केपी शर्मा ओली पिछले हफ्ते दूसरी बार नेपाल के प्रधानमंत्री बने। करीब दो महीने पूर्व गणतांत्रिक संविधान के तहत हुए पहले संसदीय और स्थानीय चुनावों में वाम गठबंधन ने सत्तारूढ़ नेपाली कांग्रेस को भारी शिकस्त दी थी। ओली के नेतृत्व वाली सीपीएन-यूएमएल और प्रचंड के नेतृत्व वाली सीपीएन-माओवादी सेंटर के गठबंधन ने संसद के निचले सदन की 275 सीटों में 174 सीटों पर जीत दर्ज की, जबकि उच्च सदन की 59 में से 39 सीटें मिलीं थीं।