India valued partner in Nepal’s democracy: Deputy PM Thapa

NEW DELHI: Saying the relations with India is now “back on track”, Kamal Thapa, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Nepal, Friday said India can play a major role in consolidating the political change that has happened in his country.

“India has been a valued partner in Nepal’s democratic transition”, Thapa said.

Delivering a talk on “Current developments in Nepal and the India-Nepal relations” at Observer Research Foundation in Delhi, Thapa said the fact that 13 bilateral meetings have been scheduled between the two countries in the coming two months alone showed that the relations are back on track.

The Nepali deputy prime minister said India-Nepal relations are “unique and special” and that one should not compare Nepal’s foreign policy with India and China.

“It cannot be same. Each nation has its own characters and so the foreign policy will change according to that,” he said.

Thapa said his government had denied the claims of some parties and some of those in government that India had interfered in the recent political instability in Kathmandu.

He said Nepal should try to make maximum benefit of the two large global economies around it – that of China and India. India has already emerged as one of the top economies in the world, he said.

“A hut can’t remain a hut in between two skyscrapers,” Thapa said expressing his optimism that the growth achieved in China and India would lead to development in Nepal too.

He said the government has already begun the reconstructing of the damaged buildings and infrastructure caused by the massive earthquake a year ago. He said nearly three billion dollars have been transferred to the Reconstruction Authority set up through a legislation.

The Nepalese DPM said first the authority will build the private buildings in the first two years and after that take up the infrastructure work. He said it would need at least 8 billion dollars to complete all the work in five years as per the legislation.

He said the government is trying to sort out the differences over Constitution through talks with the affected parties. He said even his party had reservations against the Constitution and had voted against it, but his party accepted it after more than 80 percent members of the Constituent Assembly adopted it. “Still we have reservations on some clauses, but it is one of the most progressive and inclusive Constitutions in the world,” he said.