Kathmandu, Feb 27 (PTI) Nepal’s Parliament on Sunday endorsed the contentious US-funded USD 500 million grant agreement amid protests by main opposition party CPN-UML.
Finance Minister Janardhan Sharma put the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact for voting after deliberations on the agreement in the House of Representatives.
Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota declared endorsement of the MCC through voice voting despite protests by main opposition party CPN-UML in the lower house.
The US government had set February 28 as the deadline to endorse the grant project.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also chief of ruling Nepali Congress, earlier held hectic political consultations with other parties regarding the endorsement of the project from the Parliament.
Nepal and the US in 2017 signed the MCC agreement, meant for building Nepal’s infrastructure such as electric transmission lines and improvement of national highways. The MCC is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the US Congress in 2004. It is an independent agency separate from the State Department and USAID.
Nepal’s political parties were sharply divided on whether to accept the US grant assistance under the MCC agreement.
China is wary of the US making forays into Nepal, where over the years it wielded influence among the influential Marxist parties. Currently, the Nepali Congress is leading the ruling Coalition in Kathmandu which includes major Left parties – CPN-Maoist Centre CPN-Unified Socialist.
China, whose political influence as well as investments have grown in Nepal significantly, especially under the previous pro-Beijing Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s tenure, was mostly silent in recent months after Prime Minister Deuba – an advocate of diplomatic balanced foreign policy with close ties with India – took power last year. PTI SBP ZH ZH
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