By Nirmal P. Acharya
While the world was focused on the Taiwan Strait, our Foreign Minister, Khadka, visited Qingdao, China, to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. As the outcome of the meeting, China will provide comprehensive economic support to Nepal. The Chinese side will use its aid to support the feasibility study of the cross-border railway and send experts to Nepal to carry out field visits this year.
Certainly, the Nepal-China Railway will transform Nepal from a land-locked country to a land-linked country and significantly improve Nepal’s national transportation. However, Nepal seems indecisive and hesitant to be engaged in the activity fearing India would not be pleased about it. On the other hand, China also has not actively promoted the China-Nepal Railway for a long time because China does not want to provoke India. Therefore, making India the essential factor in whether the China-Nepal Railway will get off the ground or not.
So, why the meeting of the Chinese and Nepalese foreign ministers was able to announce the launch of the China-Nepal Railway in a high-profile manner on August 10? It’s simply because the world situation has undergone profound changes now.
The reason why China adopted strategic tolerance towards India for so long is due to the fear of Russia and the US behind it. Russia, and the Soviet Union before it, have always sided with India in the Sino-Indian dispute. At present, Russia is deeply involved in the Russian-Ukrainian war, and its relationship with the West led by the US has collapsed, thereupon, Russia is in no position to intervene in the India-China dispute. As for the US, it is always happy to see the dispute between China and India escalate in order to reap benefits.
Likewise, India also hopes that China and the US will be the first to fall out, and she will reap the benefits. Finally, on August 3, with Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan, China set out to engage in a military struggle and terminated or suspended several important cooperation mechanisms with the US, and diplomatic relations began to break down. Then, the US and India, in no time announced they would hold joint military exercises against China in October at a distance of 95 kilometers from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on the India-China border.
From the Doklam incident and the conflict in the Galwan Valley to the upcoming US-India joint military exercise, India has made strategic moves against China. Meanwhile, China’s response, as far as can be seen, is to carry out a survey of the China-Nepal railway.
