Nepal to build on ties with China

By Sudeshna Sarkar, Kathmandu, Dec 1 : Four months after his first official visit to India, Nepal's embattled Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal now heads to China in a bid to enhance ties with his country's northern neighbour.

If nothing untoward happens, Nepal will begin his six-day visit to China from Dec 26, his political advisor Rajan Bhattarai said.

"It's a goodwill visit at the invitation of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao," Bhattarai told IANS. "The visit continues the tradition of Nepal endeavouring to foster good relations with its neighbours."

Nepal's predecessor, the Himalayan republic's first Maoist prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, created a furore last year when he departed from the tradition of Nepali premiers choosing India as their first port of call abroad after assuming office.

Instead, Prachanda, who had led a 10-year guerrilla war against the state inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, chose to visit Beijing first.

When his eight-month-old government fell this year, Prachanda blamed India, saying New Delhi was angered by the Beijing visit.

A defiant Prachanda had planned a second visit to China during his tenure as prime minister this year. But it had to be shelved after his government locked horns with the chief of the army, Gen Rookmangud Katawal, and collapsed after an aborted bid to sack the general.

Madhav Kumar Nepal's China visit comes after fresh anti-government protests started in Nepal by the Maoists. The former rebels have threatened to declare parallel governments from Dec 11 followed by a three-day general strike nationwide from Dec 20.

Prachanda has warned of an indefinite general strike if the government fails to address his party's concerns within this month.

The Maoists are demanding either an apology from President Ram Baran Yadav, who reinstated the sacked general, or a parliamentary debate on Yadav's move, which they condemn as unconstitutional.

However, Bhattarai, the premier's political advisor, said ruling parties were continuing dialogue with the Maoists and were optimistic the latter would behave in a responsible manner.

Last week, the Maoists, who have kept parliament obstructed since the fall of their government in May, lifted the siege for three days to allow the budget to be passed and bail out the government from an acute financial crisis.

China, which supported King Gyanendra in 2005 when the monarch had seized power through a bloodless coup, has now been extending the olive branch to the new multi-party governments of Nepal, including the one headed by the Maoists accused in the past of tarnishing Mao's name.

Beijing this year offered the Prachanda government an increase its annual aid to Nepal -- from 100 million yuan to 150 million yuan. The assistance includes military support as well as help to build a new consulate for Nepal in Tibet's Lhasa city.

Nepal is the only country allowed to have a consulate in Lhasa. Even US President Barack Obama's China visit last month could not get the concession from Beijing though the US is keen to have a foothold in the once Buddhist kingdom.

China last month also agreed to allow Nepal's national carrier, Nepal Airlines, to start flights from Kathmandu to Lhasa and back from 2010.

No other international airline is yet allowed to fly to Lhasa, which remains China's Achilles' heel due to the continuing protests by Tibetans against Chinese control.