KATHMANDU, JUNE 16

Charge d'Affaires of US Embassy in Nepal Manuel P Micaller, Jr has said that no State Partnership Programme-led event has occurred because Nepal never wanted them to occur.

Any event under SPP will take place only with Nepal's approval.

"Since the US agreed to Nepal's request to take part in SPP, we have continued to have open dialogue with Nepali leaders to collaborate on what the cooperative exchanges under SPP might look like, to include possible humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness activities," Micaller said.

"The SPP is a regular military-to-military exchange programme occurring between the US National Guard and the Nepali Army."

According to Micaller, when Nepal asked to participate in the programme in 2015, and again in 2017, the request involved civilian, government, and military leaders from Nepal, openly looking to take advantage of a programme focused on security cooperation and exchanges, humanitarian assistance, and disaster readiness.

He said if a country wanted to stop participation in SPP, it could simply inform the US.

Only Belarus has ended its participation in the programme.

Army confirms letter to the US

Spokesperson for the Nepali Army Brigadier General Narayan Silwal confirmed that a letter was indeed written to the US envoy by the then army chief Rajendra Chhetri. He, however, said that the letter written by Gen Chhetri was aimed at seeking help from the US on disaster preparedness and since US National Guard is an experienced body, Chhetri sought US National Guard's help. "We were dealing with Gorkha earthquake and we realised that we needed advanced preparedness to deal with future disasters. It was in that context that the letter was written to the US ambassador," Silwal said. He added that when Chhetri wrote the letter, there was no talk of Indo-Pacific Strategy.

He said the army understood well the significance of Nepal's non-aligned foreign policy and geopolitical challenges, particularly neighbours' sensitivities and it would continue to be careful about sensitive issues.

Silwal said the letter written by Gen Chhetri clearly mentioned areas where NA wanted assistance from the US.

"We didn't say we want to be part of any alliance," he added.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 17, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.