NEW DELHI (TIP): As concerns abound in India over Nepal‘s decision to join China‘s One Belt, One Road (OBOR), Nepal has come out strongly to underscore the significance of its ties with India, saying no country can change its geography.

While fears have been expressed about another South Asian nation walking into a debt trap, Nepal has assured India that the agreement it signed to officially join OBOR is still at a “premature stage” and that it will carefully weigh terms and conditions for utilisation of funds from China. “What we have is only a framework agreement (on OBOR) with China and the modalities of terms and conditions for fund utilisation will be worked out later. All such considerations will be made on merit and in keeping with our national interest,” Nepal’s ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay told TOI. This is significant in the context of Sri Lanka which, faced with a debt crisis that emanated from Chinese loans, has again turned to Beijing for help. China is seeking to improve connectivity with Nepal, including by building a cross border railway line, but Upadhyay said such projects would take years.

“Even China acknowledges that we can’t change geography. We need 365 days of continuous supplies. We have joined OBOR but we have also made it clear to the Chinese that by joining OBOR we don’t want to, or mean to, undermine the relationship with India which we are proud of,” Upadhyay said.

To underline the significance of Nepal’s ties with India, Upadhyay said cooperation with India in the power sector had resulted in practically no power cuts across the country since Diwali last year. This has been made possible by not just our own internal management but also because India supplied us an additional 151MW of power last year. This additional power was made possible through the double circuit transmission line between Muzaffarpur and Dhalkebar. (TOI)