Why is the US struggling to give US$500 million to Kathmandu? Ask Nepal’s China-friendly Maoists
- Millennium Challenge Corporation grant would fund road and power projects, but sceptics see it as an attempt to rival Beijing’s growing belt-and-road clout
- Wrangling over the issue has raised doubts about the survival of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s ruling coalition
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is facing an uphill battle to get parliament to approve a controversial US$500 million grant from the American government to build electrical power lines and upgrade roads in the impoverished Himalayan country.
Deuba, who leads the centrist Nepali Congress, has been struggling to persuade his coalition partners to come on board with the plan, telling them late last month, “This grant is necessary for Nepal’s development. There’s nothing in it that goes against the national interest. It’s within the law of the land.”
But ceaseless wrangling over accepting the US grant has deepened Nepal’s political divisions and raised doubts about the survival of the coalition led by the veteran politician. Deuba, 75, was named to the post last July by Nepal’s Supreme Court in an attempt to end months of political upheaval.