ISLAMABAD – India has shown anxiety with the visit of Pakistan’s PrimeMinister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi visit to Nepal.
Indian media has reacted over the visit of Pakistani PM in its backyard.Indian media termed it an effort by Pakistan to counter India in the regionwith help of China.
The official reason for Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’svisit to Nepal was to congratulate his counterpart KP Sharma Oli on thesuccessful conclusion of elections. But Abbasi’s discussions with hisinterlocutors showed the visit was about much more, Hindustan Times hasreported.
Abbasi made a concerted effort to give a new direction to Pakistan’s tieswith Nepal during his two-day visit that ended on Tuesday, raising issuesranging from the holding of the much-delayed Saarc Summit to the situationin Kashmir, and plugging China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
He raised the “Kashmir issue and the ongoing human rights violations” inJammu and Kashmir during his meeting with Oli, according to Pakistan’sstate-run APP news agency.
He also made a strong push for Nepal’s support for holding the Saarc Summitin Islamabad, officials said. Abbasi said the full potential of Saarc wasnot being exploited and there is a “need to hold the next summit onpriority basis”.
The summit was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016, when itwas postponed after India and several other members of the grouping pulledout in the wake of terror attacks in Kashmir that were blamed onPakistan-based groups.
Abbasi talked at length about the benefits of the BRI with Nepalese leadersand urged them to back the connectivity project. He was also very vocalabout Nepal taking advantage of the BRI in two interviews with the localmedia.
“This is a project of a generation, a paradigm shift,” Abbasi said in aninterview. “The whole region needs to connect into BRI, which will thenopen markets and opportunities for us in the West and in Central Asia.”
Nepal has signed an MoU with China to become part of the BRI. There hasbeen a big push from Beijing for Kathmandu to select projects for inclusionin the project.
According to Nepalese officials who participated in the talks betweenAbbasi and Oli, the Pakistani premier also spoke of how the China-PakistanEconomic Corridor would be a game changer for South Asia.
The visit seemed to be aimed at giving a psychological counter to India,”said a leader from Nepal’s ruling party.
Others noted that Abbasi’s visit came against the backdrop of the formationof a nationalist government in Nepal under the leadership of Oli, whoshares warm relations with China and is seen as cool towards India.
Observers also noted that Abbasi did not meet Nepali Congress leader SherBahadur Deuba, who skipped a dinner hosted by Oli after the Pakistani sidedid not arrange a bilateral meeting. Deuba is known as pro-West andpro-India.