China's army chief wrapped up a high level visit to Nepal on Thursday, signing a new aid deal with Kathmandu's military that further cements ties between the two neighbours. General Chen Bingde, chief of the general staff of China's People's Liberation Army, arrived in Kathmandu on Wednesday for the first visit by a high-level Chinese military delegation in 10 years. The 70-year-old signed two agreements with his Nepalese counterpart, General Chhatraman Singh Gurung, in which he announced 1.4 billion rupees (19 million dollars) worth of aid to the Nepalese army for infrastructure development. Due to its strategic location, Nepal is often caught between Asia's two giants, India and China. "The purpose of my visit is to strengthen friendship and cooperation between Nepal and China," Chen told reporters. "This cooperation is not only conducive for our people but also for the world peace and the Asia Pacific region." Chen, who led a 15-member delegation including the top security official from neighbouring Tibet, held talks with Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime minister Jhalanath Khanal and Defence Minister Bishnu Paudel.
Analysts say while India has traditionally been the influential player in Nepal, China is making inroads in the Himalayan nation that is recovering after the end in 2006 of a decade-long civil war which killed 16,000 people. "The Nepalese army is seen as the only strong state institution. This is why the Chinese are keen on investing in it," Sudheer Sharma, editor of Nepalese newspaper Kantipur told AFP. "The former monarchy until its end in 2008 acted as an ally for the Chinese. With the monarchy gone, they are in a lookout for a trustworthy ally and Nepalese army could well be the one," he added. China has also expanded its links with India's other neighbours, to the alarm of policymakers in New Delhi who see the moves as encroachment on their immediate sphere of influence in South Asia. Beijing has historic ties with Pakistan, but has also begun building major infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Thursday marked the end of the official part of Chen's visit.
He was due to leave Nepal on Friday after a sightseeing trip to the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu valley. Crucial EU summit split on Libya, upset by Portugal Europe's leaders head into a crucial summit Thursday, torn over the military campaign in Libya and facing a political crisis in Portugal that threatens fresh trouble for the euro. Originally scheduled to finalise a long-anticipated deal to shore up the single currency, leaders of the 27-nation European Union gather for the two-day talks from 1600 GMT facing a new financial storm should troub ... read moreNepalese police this month tried to forcibly repatriate a group of sick Tibetan refugees, some of them children, the International Campaign for Tibet alleged in a report released Saturday. The Washington-based campaign group said the seven refugees, among them a seven-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, hid for days in a forest in Nepal after escaping police who had threatened to send them back across the border.
All seven were undernourished and the two children required urgent medical attention when they finally reached the Nepalese capital, according to the ICT, which said it had received reports of several such cases involving Tibetans. Every year, hundreds of Tibetans make the difficult and dangerous journey across the border into neighbouring Nepal, fleeing alleged political and religious repression in Chinese-controlled Tibet. Nepal has no asylum laws, but has always allowed them safe passage through the country to Dharamshala in India, home of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, under a so-called gentleman's agreement with the UN refugee agency. There is no evidence that any refugees have actually been repatriated, but the ICT said there was a "disturbing inconsistency" in the implementation of the agreement, amid growing pressure from Beijing over the Tibetans in Nepal. "Vigorous strategies by Beijing to influence the Nepalese government, border forces, the judicial system and civil society at a time of political transition in Nepal mean that Tibetans in Nepal are increasingly vulnerable, demoralised and at risk of arrest and repatriation," it said.
"There is also increasing concern about assertive actions by the Chinese authorities in Nepal's sovereign territory." The ICT said armed Chinese police had been seen on the Nepal side of the border, citing sources in Kathmandu who were in contact with Tibetans in the area and who believed the police were searching for the group. Nepal has boosted its border police over the past year, and there have also been reports of plain-clothes Chinese security forces harassing Tibetans on the Nepal side of the border. The latest incident came to light when one of the men in the group managed to reach Kathmandu, said the ICT, which interviewed the refugee after he arrived in the Nepalese capital. The United Nations refugee agency and several foreign embassies then intervened to secure safe passage to a UN reception centre in Kathmandu for the others, it said. China is a major aid donor to its impoverished southern neighbour, home to around 20,000 exiled Tibetans who began arriving in large numbers in 1959 after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
Some 2,500 people used to make the dangerous trip every year, but activists say numbers have declined dramatically since the March 2008 riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa led to a major increase in border security. Jay Mukunda Khanal, spokesman for the home ministry in Kathmandu, declined to comment on the alleged incident except to say Nepal "respects Beijing's one China policy" -- that Tibet is an integral part of the country. "Tibetans are not allowed to enter Nepal without a permit. If they are found on Nepalese soil without the proper documents, they will be dealt with according to our national laws," he told AFP. Hong Kong debates political reform amid protests Hong Kong's government held an unprecedented debate Thursday with opposition camps on a controversial political reform plan as pro-democracy demonstrators called for universal suffrage. Chief Executive Donald Tsang held his first televised debate on the hot-button issue with the leader of one of the main opposition parties in a last-ditch effort to win public support before the city's legisl ... read more