Kathmandu: Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song’s remarks regarding the trade of electricity and other goods between Nepal and India as well as the economic growth of Nepal’s southern neighbour have ignited a controversy.
Addressing a discussion titled ‘China in global economy and its impact in Nepal’, organised in Kathmandu by the Foundation for Trans-Himalayan Research and Studies and Friends of Silk Road Club Nepal, the Chinese ambassador said: “Unfortunately, you have a neighbour like India, but fortunately you have a neighbour like India, because India is a huge market with huge potential you can tap in to.”
He added: “But at the same time, India's policy towards Nepal and other neighbours is not so friendly and not so beneficial to Nepal. So we call that policy of constraints.”
Sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Indian Embassy has taken up the matter with the ministry, but top officials are clueless about how to respond. There are calls to protest the statement by the Chinese ambassador against another neighbouring country of Nepal.
Foreign Minister NP Saud said that the ministry has taken the Chinese envoy’s statement into notice. “When the Nepal government formulates your economic policies, you have to take your decisions under those circumstances,” the ambassador said.
“It’s not because of the opening of the door of China that China’s economy is booming. It’s because we have a very solid foundation, because almost at the same time, India also opened its door, but we did not see any economic boom in India. Only in recent years, we see that India’s economy is starting to soar.”
Some diplomats and foreign policy observers say the Chinese ambassador’s statement violates diplomatic norms and has unnecessarily stirred controversy over Nepal’s relations with neighbouring countries.
“I read the statement made by the Chinese ambassador,” Arun Subedi, who served as foreign relations adviser to former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, said. “The [Pushpa Kamal Dahal] government should send a diplomatic note and protest the remarks.”
The Chinese ambassador also compared Nepal’s trade with India which some government officials find “out of context and uncalled for”. “The question is what our response would be if the Indian ambassador was to make a similar statement,” said Subedi. “The government is silent as the remarks come at a time when China conspicuously refused to use the new map of Nepal while showing its territory.”
The Chinese ambassador’s statement was undiplomatic, an official at the prime minister's office said, requesting anonymity. “He cannot make such comments on the internal affairs of Nepal. Nor can he comment on our relation with another neighbour that we are hugely dependent on.”