Interview with Tanka Karki at Delhi Khabar Express

Interview with Tanka Karki at Delhi Khabar Express

India is likely to offer Nepal’s new prime minister help building an east-west railway line and better access to its ports on his first visit this week, as it tries to regain ground lost recently to China. Prachanda, a former Maoist rebel commander, has chosen New Delhi as his first foreign stop, seeking to rebalance ties that chilled under his pro-China predecessor. KP Sharma Oli had sealed trade deals that sought to reduce landlocked Nepal’s economic dependence on India. “Relations with India have become frosty for some time. I want to remove the bitterness,” Prachanda told reporters on Tuesday evening in Kathmandu, adding India now “wants to help Nepal, which is in difficulties.” Nepal has yet to complete a political transition after a decade-long insurgency and weeks of deadly street protests that brought down the monarchy nearly a decade ago. A new republican constitution is still a source of rancour for southern plains people who mounted a five-month border blockade that ended earlier this year.