Will work towards maintaining friendly relations with India and China: Nepal FM Khadka

| | Kathmandu
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Will work towards maintaining friendly relations with India and China: Nepal FM Khadka

Thursday, 23 September 2021 | PTI | Kathmandu

Nepal’s newly-appointed Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka said on Wednesday that he will work towards maintaining friendly and balanced relations with India and China and forge national consensus with political parties on the matters of foreign relations.

Khadka, 72, was sworn in as the Minister for Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to Khadka in a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Shital Niwas, in the presence of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Bhandari appointed Khadka the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the recommendation of Prime Minister Deuba.

Talking to reporters after assuming office on Wednesday afternoon, Khadka said he will work towards ensuring extremely friendly, amicable, and balanced relations with both the immediate neighbours — India and China.

Arguing that the foreign policy of a country is not specific to any one particular political party, the senior Nepali Congress leader said he will work toward forging national consensus with other political parties on the matters of foreign relations, My Republica website reported.

He also said the issue of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact Agreement will also be resolved keeping in view the country’’s larger national interests.

Under the USD 500 million MCC programme, the US government will provide the grant assistance which will be mainly utilised on strengthening Nepal’’s transmission line that would facilitate the export of hydro-electricity to India in the near future and also improve the country’’s road networks.

Nepal and the United States signed the MCC agreement in 2017. The MCC, however, has become a hotly-debated political issue in this country, with some parties objecting to it on grounds that the US programme is part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy and its parliamentary ratification would be against Nepal’’s national interest.

Khadka said the agreement will be carefully reviewed in light of some controversies that surfaced around it and a decision will be taken accordingly.

Khadka also announced plans to transform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into a more dynamic institution equipped with modern technologies. He said that the appointment of new ambassadors will begin after his return to Nepal from the United Nations General Assembly.          

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