Kathmandu, April 21
Nepal scaled down its first ever joint military exercise with China owing to the opposition from India, a Chinese intellectual said.
“Facing strong opposition from India, Nepal had to compress the size of the military exercise and changed the venue to a military school,” Chinese Liu Zongyi, a senior fellow at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, wrote for The Global Times, “But even so, India’s security strategy observers and media paid close attention to the military exercise.”
Liu claimed that India’s concern was outdated, arguing, “It is a normal development for China to hold a military exercise with Nepal as Nepal is China’s friendly neighbour.”
“There are many countries which have held joint military exercises, including India, with China. Now that China and Nepal have developed closer economic relations, Nepal hopes to join China’s Belt and Road initiative, for which regional security and stability is a necessity.”
According to the scholar, China and Nepal could learn from each other about disaster relief techniques and thus accumulate experience for dealing with disasters.
He further asserted that the drill would not have violated the Treaty of Peace and Friendship inked by Nepal and India in 1950, warning, “If New Delhi does not change its mentality, it will be paranoid about every cooperation between China and South Asian countries.”
