India sends stern message to Nepal
NEW DELHI : India has expressed its displeasure at Nepal deciding to merely be an observer in a scheduled joint military exercise of Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries which kicked off in Pune on Monday, after having made a commitment to participate.
According to a person familiar with the development, New Delhi has told Kathmandu that its decision is not appropriate and its explanation of internal political pressure is “not convincing”. Nepal’s decision, conveyed on Friday, has put India and the regional grouping in an “embarrassing position”, added this person, who asked not to be identified. Officially, neither the ministry of external affairs nor the ministry of defence have yet commented on the issue of Nepal’s withdrawal as a full participant. A government official said on condition of anonymity that participation depended entirely on the comfort level of participating countries.
Nepal’s decision to pull out came just over a week after Kathmandu hosted a significant summit of Bimstec countries, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bimstec member states include India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. The exercise opened on Monday. An army spokesperson said its aim was to enhance Bimstec cooperation in planning and conduct of counter terrorist operations.
“The exercise schedule is focused upon learning of best practices, team building & special tactical level operations in a counter-terrorist environment in semi urban setting.”
On Friday, Nepal PM KP Oli called the Indian ambassador, Manjeev Singh Puri, in Kathmandu and conveyed to him Nepal’s inability to participate in the exercise, the first person said. Oli cited “internal political pressure”, according to this person. There has been criticism in both the Nepali political sphere, and in the media, of the country’s involvement in the exercise with arguments centred on how the participation itself was shrouded in secrecy.
Puri did not comment on whether he had been called in for such a meeting.
But Delhi was not happy with the explanation and conveyed it to the Nepali leadership, the first person added.
Distilling the Indian message that had been conveyed at the political level, the person quoted above said, “The Indian position is this was something in the works for a while. Nepal had agreed.
A planning meeting was held much earlier. PM Modi mentioned it in his speech in Kathmandu in front of everyone on August 30.
And suddenly, the Nepal government pulled out. It put everyone, including India, in an embarrassing position.”