Kathmandu, May 17
Allaying fears that reviewing the 1950 Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty will "sabotage" bilateral ties, Maoist chief Prachanda has said he wanted a "close" and "special" relationship with India on the basis of a "new" understanding.
"There should be some sort of special relation between Kathmandu and Delhi.... We want a new relationship with India, which means better relation, better understanding and better cooperation," Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, said.
The Maoist leader, believed to be Nepal's prime minister-in-waiting, said he wanted "each and every" provision of the treaty to be reviewed in the "new changing context" for "better" relationship between two countries.
"People feel that that it (treaty) is not benefiting them, there is some kind of inequality in it, so people have, time and again, raised concern for reviewing the 1950 treaty," he told Karan Thapar here in an interview for CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme. "I don't think reviewing the treaty will sabotage the relation," he said.
New Delhi has expressed its readiness to have a re-look at the 58-year-old treaty after the Maoists voiced the demand following their triumph in the April Constituent Assembly poll.
Prachanda, however, favoured "equidistant" from both New Delhi and Beijing at the "political level".
"At the political level we will never side one country against another," he said. "We will try to maintain equidistant between Delhi and Beijing in political sense, but not in practical sense and in matters of cooperation." Prachanda denied that he was indulging in doublespeak on ties with India--demanding review of the treaty and seeking "equidistant" from Beijing and New Delhi on one hand and favouring close ties on the other. But political observers think he is indulging in doublespeak.
What can people of Nepal and India make out of such a contradictory statements from Nepal's revolutionary PM waiting?
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Dialogue with Beijing 'vital': Tibetan exiled government
The Tibetan government-in-exile said Monday a new round of talks with China had been "vital" and that it was pleased Beijing had committed itself to continued dialogue.
"The fact we are once again in contact is very vital for a solution to the Tibetan issue," said Thubten Samphel, spokesman of the northern India-based Tibetan government-in-exile.
"It is also very good that China agreed to honour a meeting later," he told AFP by telephone from the hill town of Dharamshala, home of the exiled administration of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
The one day of closed-door talks, the first between the two sides in over a year, concluded on Sunday with no reported breakthrough in ending the Tibet crisis, but few other details emerged.
The meeting came after global leaders pressured China to reopen dialogue amid seven weeks of deadly unrest in Tibet that has marred the nation's Olympic build-up.
"The issue of Tibet is too complicated and one cannot expect one or two rounds of talks will lead to solutions, but what is important is that the two sides are talking, which will help in dispelling mistrust," Samphel said.
"There is no alternative to talks, and so once there is trust this dialogue process will move forward and so we need to keep talking," he added.
The envoys who held talks with Chinese officials in Shenzhen in southern China were due to return to India on Tuesday or Wednesday and would then brief the Dalai Lama, Tibetan officials said.
One senior Tibetan source, however, hinted that the lack of tangible progress was a disappointment.
"We were at least expecting an assurance that the crackdown would end. We await our representatives to return and brief us on what transpired," the Tibetan official said on condition he not be named.
China has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of wanting independence for his homeland and of fomenting the recent unrest in an effort to shine a world spotlight on Tibet ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
The 1989 Nobel laureate has rejected these charges, but has accused China of widespread human rights violations of his people and maintained his push for greater Tibetan autonomy under Chinese rule.
Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1950 and annexed the region the following year. The Dalai Lama fled his homeland following a failed 1959 uprising.
"The fact we are once again in contact is very vital for a solution to the Tibetan issue," said Thubten Samphel, spokesman of the northern India-based Tibetan government-in-exile.
"It is also very good that China agreed to honour a meeting later," he told AFP by telephone from the hill town of Dharamshala, home of the exiled administration of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
The one day of closed-door talks, the first between the two sides in over a year, concluded on Sunday with no reported breakthrough in ending the Tibet crisis, but few other details emerged.
The meeting came after global leaders pressured China to reopen dialogue amid seven weeks of deadly unrest in Tibet that has marred the nation's Olympic build-up.
"The issue of Tibet is too complicated and one cannot expect one or two rounds of talks will lead to solutions, but what is important is that the two sides are talking, which will help in dispelling mistrust," Samphel said.
"There is no alternative to talks, and so once there is trust this dialogue process will move forward and so we need to keep talking," he added.
The envoys who held talks with Chinese officials in Shenzhen in southern China were due to return to India on Tuesday or Wednesday and would then brief the Dalai Lama, Tibetan officials said.
One senior Tibetan source, however, hinted that the lack of tangible progress was a disappointment.
"We were at least expecting an assurance that the crackdown would end. We await our representatives to return and brief us on what transpired," the Tibetan official said on condition he not be named.
China has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of wanting independence for his homeland and of fomenting the recent unrest in an effort to shine a world spotlight on Tibet ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
The 1989 Nobel laureate has rejected these charges, but has accused China of widespread human rights violations of his people and maintained his push for greater Tibetan autonomy under Chinese rule.
Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1950 and annexed the region the following year. The Dalai Lama fled his homeland following a failed 1959 uprising.
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