KATHMANDU, JUNE 17

'Gen Chhetri's letter does not say Nepal wants to be part of a military alliance'

The International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives has directed the government to officially tell the United States of America that Nepal would not be part of US State Partnership Programme from now on.

The House panel also said that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba should not sign any agreement with the US during his upcoming US visit that is against Nepal's foreign policy. The panel also directed the government agencies to produce agreements and letters related to SPP within the next seven days. It also directed the government to produce the conclusion of the task force formed by the KP Sharma Oli government regarding SPP.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Narayan Khadka today told the House panel that the government would not implement US State Partnership Programme and he had communicated the same message to ruling coalition leaders. He said there was no need to harp on what happened in the past with regard to the SPP. The government has made it clear that the SPP is not in Nepal's interests, he added.

The Chief of the Army Staff General Prabhu Ram Sharma today told the panel that the then army chief Gen Rajendra Chhetri had indeed written a letter to the US Ambassador in October 2015, but it clearly stated that Nepal wanted American help to deal with natural disasters, such as earthquakes, inundation, and landslides.

'The letter does not say that Nepal wants to be part of a military alliance,' he said.

Gen Sharma said the NA was committed to following Nepal's foreign policy of non-alignment. He said the NA advocated taking into account neighbours' sensitivities and not letting Nepali soil be used against any of its neighbours. Sharma said the letter was written with the consent of the then prime minister.

He said Gen Chhetri stated that the army was against entering any alliance with the US army. Gen Sharma said the NA wrote a letter to the Government of Nepal in 2019 telling it to opt out of SPP when SPP was linked to US Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Meanwhile, CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli today said at a different programme that he was not informed when Gen Rajendra Chhetri wrote a letter to US Ambassador to Nepal Alaina B Teplitz on 27 October 2015 requesting the US government to implement the US National Guard State Partnership Programme 'in the near future.'

Oli said CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal was the prime minister on 7 May 2017 when Gen Chhetri wrote to US Pacific Force command reminding it of Nepal's request for US National Guard State Partnership Programme.

Oli said Sushil Koirala, who was the prime minister and defence minister, had decided as defence minister on 22 September 2015 to seek the US government's help under SPP and had sent the decision to the Nepali Army. 'The army chief is not supposed to write such letters. The defence ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs write such letters,' he added.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 18, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.