KATHMANDU, MARCH 1
CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal organised a press conference and said that CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli wanted to secure parliamentary ratification of the MCC deal without any change, but it was possible to secure amendments to the deal through the interpretative declaration that the House of Representatives passed along with the MCC deal.
Justifying the party's protest against the MCC deal, Nepal said it was only after their protest that the interpretative declaration was passed by the House along with the MCC deal.
He said confusion was created about the MCC deal because America had listed Nepal as part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy after then foreign minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali visited the United States.
He said the US had removed Nepal from the IPS partnership in 2022 after Nepali parties raised objection.
"An American authority had said in Nepal in 2019 that MCC was part of IPS. Did we make mistake by opposing such remarks?" Nepal wondered.
"We always wanted to be clear about some issues regarding the MCC deal and we never practised double standard," he said.
CPN- UML was hatching a conspiracy to sabotage our party, but we foiled the attempt within a few minutes, Nepal said.
"My understanding is that American president Donald Trump wanted to keep Nepal as part of the IPS to use Nepal against China and Oli fell into Trump's trap. After the new president was elected in America, the American side made it clear that MCC was not part of IPS, Nepal argued.
"Oli's dismissal of our doubts is hundred per cent wrong," he added.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 2, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
