As it signed its first oil trade deal with Nepal, ending India’s monopoly over fuel supplies, China on Wednesday expressed readiness for “friendly” talks with India to stabilise the landlocked country, reeling under acute fuel shortage due to a blockade of border points with India.
“Both India and Nepal are friendly neighbours to China,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing when asked about reports of backchannel talks between New Delhi and Beijing over resolving the constitutional crisis in Nepal.
We hope that in maintaining regional stability and state-to-state friendship, all relevant countries can sit together and have friendly consultations so that consensus can be reached.
Lu Kang, Spokesperson, Foreign Ministry
About Beijing stepping up fuel and food supplies through its recently reopened border in Tibet, Lu said “as a friend and neighbour of Nepal, China hopes that Nepal can enjoy a stable domestic situation after the passage of the new constitution”.
A visiting Nepali delegation led by Nepali Ambassador to China, Mahesh Maskey, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese government to import fuel from China, ending a four-decade supply monopoly of the Indian Oil Corporation.
China has also agreed to immediately supply around 1.2 million litres of fuel to Nepal on grant basis during the upcoming festival season.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)