Nepal
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu has landed in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, where he is due to hold talks with top officials, including Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka.
Police had beefed up security in the city before his arrival. They arrested several Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) workers who showed black flags even before Lu’s motorcade entered the city. The party, which split from CPN Maoist Centre, is led by Netra Bikram Chand Biplav - and is critical of what it calls "US imperialism".
The US Embassy in Kathmandu has called his visit a “regular” one.
According to the US Embassy in Kathmandu, Assistant Secretary Lu will hand over the U.S. Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) to Purnaa, a U.S. manufacturing company in Nepal that promotes ethical manufacturing by empowering traditionally marginalized people and survivors of exploitation.
He will also meet with business, civil society, and government leaders, it added.
During his past visit in November, Lu spoke at length about Nepal-US ties - and his love for Nepal, recalling how he met his wife in Nepal while traveling from east Nepal to the Tarai region.
Yet in February this year he drew criticisms in Nepal when he reportedly warned that ‘Washington would be forced to review its Nepal policy’ if Nepal failed to ratify Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact, a 500 million US Dollar aid for roads and electricity transmission lines.
After heated - and quite extended - debate, Nepal’s parliament ratified the compact on February 27 - but with an interpretative declaration.
Lu’s visit comes after Prime Minister Deuba cancelled his Washington visit plans after failing to secure a one-on-one with US President Joe Biden. And it has come at a time when Kathmandu continues to debate the status of the US State Partnership Program (SPP), which it wished to join earlier, but backtracked in June after it generated heated controversy.
The government has yet to officially write to Washington on that matter.
See photos of CPN-Maoist protest:
