गाउँको दूरदराजदेखि काठमाडौंको सिंहदरबारसम्म

Nepal, a small inland country with great strategic and geopolitical advantage for locating between China and India, has become an arena of China, the U.S. and India. No one can tell whether it represents a blessing or a curse, it actually makes Nepal be more often heard in the global stage. The U.S. starts frequently sending senior officials to Nepal after realizing its role in containing China and has put forward controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC) and State Partnership Program(SPP) in a cocky manner. While the Nepali people also demonstrate strident and united opposition to the toxic cake offered by the most powerful country in the world.

Nepal backs away from SPP

The giant America assumes that ant-sized Nepal will embrace its charitable SPP on bended knees. To its surprise, the delicately packaged SPP encounters national opposition in Nepal. The determined consensus of Nepalese greatly thumped Americans in last June. Over the past years, Nepal has been trodding a long path to pursue sovereign independence, and the only way to do so is sticking to the non-alignment foreign policy. Indeed, Nepal sees through the superficial camouflage of SPP and clearly recognizes the military alliance intention set behind it. Last May, the six-page SPP draft leaked by the media purports to focus on humanitarian and disaster response capability enhancement while its management and enforcement are very militarized, leading to unanimous protests in Nepal. Nepalese’s strong comfortlessness toward excessive military elements in SPP and ardent protests targeting America forced the Sher Bahadur Deuba government to answer the call of people and to reject SPP.

Efforts to push SPP would be in vain

A flurry of high-level visits made by the U.S. side within barely a month after the new Nepali government swore in indicate that America still wants to push forward SPP. America believes that the current political coalition provides them with new breakthroughs to lure major parties to support SPP, and it seems feasible in terms of the example of MCC. According to the source, US planned to ask Nepal to ink the SPP during the fourth meeting of Nepal-US Bilateral Land Forces’ Talk (LFT). They are pushing SPP in high spirits with the same way as before. Against the backdrop of Indo-Pacific Strategy, security seizes more and more importance in US policy toward Nepal. For decades, the U.S. military has been conducting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercises with Nepali Army. But Americans want more. The SPP is an attempt for enhanced bilateral military engagement, though the participant from the US side is Ohio National Guard. The 2022 US National Security Strategy (NSS) proposed to proactively shape the international order in line with its interests and values and enhance security ties with allies and partners in Indo-Pacific region. The SPP, once approved, would draw Nepal one step closer to the US’s military alliance and strengthen its military advantages to maintain the dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, the US side will ensure the proposal and approval of SPP this year.

Can this American dream come true? The answer from most Nepali people is no. They would rather live with dignity than being the puppet depending on the US. The frenetic American mindset ignores the decisive power of Nepali people and pays more attention to force Nepali government to approve SPP by transferring benefits to party politicians. However, the opposition to SPP can be triggered at any moment and if so, there is no doubt that the whole society will show more resolute opposition.