Kathmandu, December 21

Co-chair of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Pushpa Kamal Dahal today told party fellows that Nepal could accept US assistance under its millennium challenge corporation Nepal compact programme, but it should be amply clear that the MCC programme was separate from the Indo-Pacific Strategy.

According to Standing Committee member Beduram Bhusal, Dahal told the Standing Committee meeting that Nepal could accept the MCC only after considering the strings attached to the programme. “We have to see how far the conditions of the MCC programme suit our interests,” Bhusal quoted Dahal as telling the party meeting.

Responding to queries of the party’s Standing Committee members, Dahal said while Nepal should continue to enjoy its old and cordial relations with the US, it could not be part of any military alliance in the guise of any programme, according to NCP Standing Committee member Mani Thapa.

Dahal’s response came after some members of the Standing Committee told the meeting that MCC was part of the Indo Pacific strategy and hence Nepal should not accept the programme.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali recently said in a newspaper interview that MCC was not part of IPS and thus negative comments were uncalled for.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had also said in a newspaper interview that the MCC would be endorsed during the winter session of Parliament.

The PM also expressed dissatisfaction with former speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara saying he made a mistake by withholding the process of adopting the programme.

The US has announced that it will provide assistance of $500 million to Nepal under the MCC programme over the next five years.

According to Bhusal, Dahal said Nepal Communist Party was fundamentally different from communist movements in other countries around the world and Nepal’s communist movement would move ahead on the basis of its own features.

Dahal said the party’s unity document would guide its course of action in the days ahead and if any amendment had to be made in the party’s document then the party’s next general convention would have to amend it.

According to Dahal, two agenda — border dispute with India and amendment to the party’s statue would be discussed tomorrow.

According to Thapa, the Standing Committee decided to call its Central Committee meeting on January 19.

It has been almost one-and-a-half years since the party held its Central Committee meeting.