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China boosts hopes Nepal rail link can get back on track
- Foreign Minister Wang Yi tells Nepalese counterpart Narayan Khadka that surveyors will examine the feasibility of plans to link Kathmandu with Gyirong in Tibet
- Talks on the project began in 2016, months after a blockade on the Indian border boosted efforts to strengthen ties with Beijing
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China will launch a study into plans for a cross-border railway with Nepal after the Covid-19 pandemic and a change of government in Kathmandu left the project’s future uncertain.
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In a meeting with his Nepalese counterpart Narayan Khadka in Shandong province on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that surveyors would be sent to Nepal to examine the feasibility of a line linking Kathmandu and the southern Tibetan city of Gyirong.
Discussions about the rail link began in 2016, months after a prolonged blockade of the border with India amid inter-ethnic tensions and a row over a new constitution disrupted vital supplies of fuel, medicine and commodities.
India denied accusations from some Nepalese politicians that it was behind the blockade, but the incident highlighted Nepal’s dependence on its southern neighbour and prompted the government to seek closer relations with China.
The two sides then signed an agreement to cooperate on a possible rail link under Beijing’s signature Belt and Road Initiative in 2018, but there are long-standing concerns about the cost and technical difficulty of building the line and little concrete progress has been made since then.
“No matter the changes to the international and regional situations, China and Nepal have always firmly supported each other on issues concerning our core interests, and have always stood side by side in the face of challenges,” Wang said.
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