Pandey in his interview with a Chinese state-run media attacked India on attempts to sever ties with China, refusing to negotiate on the disputed border issue, and censured Indian media for publishing fake reports. He championed Nepal’s support to ‘One-China Policy’ calling Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as Chinese territory under the rule of Beijing
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New Delhi: In an incident reflecting the indecorous external affairs of Nepal, officials of Kathmandu continue to boast their relations with Beijing, while criticizing New Delhi and its leadership. The development once again proves that Nepal’s foreign relations and communications are puppeteered by China. In the latest incident, Nepal’s ambassador to Beijing Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, in an interview with China’s state-owned newspaper Global Times praised the relations between his country and China, while condemning India. He even censured Indian and foreign media for attempting to ruin China-Nepal relations.
In the interview published on September 27, on the topic of security concerns voiced by India over Nepal’s ties with China, Pandey was quoted by the Chinese-media as saying that ‘(India’s concerns) is not based on facts and it is a biased attitude. That is an expression of fear psychology. Nepal has been an independent and sovereign country when India was a colony. We (Nepal) are not inclined to any of the ideological groups or any sort of power.’
Training his guns on Indian media, the Nepalese diplomat said ‘the Indian media may be biased or they have been misled by someone. So they published some sort of fake news and propaganda. But it is not real. The cooperation between China and Nepal is natural and friendly. There is no doubt that so many reports often said that Nepal and China are not in good relations anymore, especially from India. It was fake propaganda. We don’t have any reason not to have very good relations with China.’
On the disputed territory of Kalapani between India and Nepal, Pandey attacked New Delhi’s leadership by stating that ‘India has occupied some of our lands. In 1962, when there was a war between China and India and India was defeated at the time, some of the Indian army temporarily stayed in our land. But later on, they claimed that belonged to them. So that is our problem. We are trying our best to sit together and resolve this border issue.’
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He further claimed that ‘We (Nepal) have requested India (to negotiate on the issue) many times but they (India) were not very interested at the time. But now they (India) have become more interested and want to sit together.’
Championing firm support to Beijing’s ‘One-China policy’ the Nepalese diplomat pressed that ‘Tibet is part of China. Tibet and Nepal are related. We have a long border between the two. We firmly stand with the one-China policy. No matter whether it is Macao or Hong Kong or Taiwan, or Tibet, every part of China is China; we (Nepal) firmly stand for this one-China policy.’
He even alleged ‘misuse’ of the Indo-Nepal border by Tibetan monks by saying ‘Some of the people who left Tibet stayed in India. Sometimes, because of the misusing of our open border between Nepal and India, some undesirable elements can enter Nepal. And they also try their best to go against our relations. We do not permit it and we control them. Our soil cannot be used against any of our friendly countries.’
Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had appointed Pandey as an ambassador to China on April 18, after suddenly pulling back Leelamani Poudyal from Beijing. Pandey, a ruling Nepal Communist Party leader, was the foreign minister during the term of the Sushil Koirala-led government between February 2014 and October 2015.
According to Nepalese domestic media, when certain media outlets questioned Pandey on his shocking statement in the interview, he belligerently said ‘Leave the matter here.’
