Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the first official <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/reaction-to-wang-yi-s-nepal-visit-in-chinese-media">foreign visit </a>of the commission in her second term would be to India. On the same day, Marco Rubio held his first bilateral meeting as US Secretary of State with India’s minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Washington last month confirmed his country’s rising international profile. The visit ended with the promise of what Modi called a US-India “mega partnership.” He has committed to double trade with the US by 2030, increase <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/half-full/A-carbon-neutral-Nepal-is-possible-clean-Nepal,1064">oil and gas imports</a>, and expand US military sales to India.
India is now the fastest-growing major <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/how-nepal-can-avert-an-economic-crunch">economy</a>, with the IMF forecasting a 6.5% increase in GDP this year. India is expected to overtake Japan and Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/india-s-election-and-its-economic-future">India’s election and its economic future</a>, Raghuram G Rajan
Despite its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">vast potential</a>, India has long been overlooked by the West, both <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/ukraine-crisis-hits-nepal-economy-hard">economically</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">geopolitically</a>. But a fundamental global realignment is now underway. America’s ‘unipolar moment’ has given way to an era of great-power competition that, unlike during the Cold War, features demands by emerging and developing economies for a more <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/making-nepal-accessible-to-all">inclusive </a>and representative multilateral system.&nbsp;
In this multipolar age, both the US and Europe see India, a neutral <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/no-binary-foreign-policy?fb_comment_id=3583384368393672_3586424038089705">foreign-policy </a>actor and dynamic<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18861"> emerging economy</a>, as vital to the future of their strategic priorities.&nbsp;
A founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, India has plenty of experience navigating precarious moments in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4896">world affairs</a>. During the Cold War, it skillfully balanced its policies toward <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/america-nepal-and-the-royal-coup-qedzifz9">the US and the Soviet Union</a>.&nbsp;
When it engaged with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-far-so-good/the-vagaries-of-fate">the Soviet Union</a>, from which it received considerable <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/civil-military-synergy-in-disaster-management">military assistance</a>, it calibrated its approach to offset US support of Pakistan, without taking sides in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-rich-get-richer-and-more-powerful">great-power competition</a>.&nbsp;
India has since maintained this pragmatic balancing act, adapting its foreign policy to a shifting geopolitical landscape. Today, that means recognising its potential to shape global affairs, including by playing a leading role in building an efficient, realistic, and inclusive multilateralism.&nbsp;
This is reflected in Modi’s pursuit of a more assertive, internationalist foreign policy. Beyond building new partnerships and strengthening old ones, Modi has sought to increase <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-s-hindutva-politics-influencing-nepal">India’s influence </a>in traditional and emerging multilateral fora. In 2023 alone, India held the presidency of both the G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (a Chinese creation, comprising nine Middle Eastern and Asian countries).&nbsp;
India plays a leading role in the BRICS, and is characteristically nuanced: whereas Russia and, to a significant extent, China see themselves as disruptors of the existing order, India views itself as a reformer. This enables it to maintain strategic flexibility as it advances its interests.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-china-rail-race">India’s relationship with China</a> is complicated by other factors. While the countries work together in some fora, they are also locked in protracted<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-bangladesh-border-talks-have-lessons-for-nepal"> territorial disputes</a> and a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-race-for-shital-nibas">competition for leadership</a> in the so-called Global South.&nbsp;
India’s growing global clout, including its appeal to Western powers, stems in large part from its ability to act as a counterweight to China. It is indispensable to the Quad alliance with Australia, Japan, and the US, a grouping that is officially focused on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-quad-maritime-security-and-climate-change">maritime security</a> and economic cooperation, though its members clearly seek to provide a buffer against China in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/between-two-oceans">Indo-Pacific region</a>. It is thanks to India that the Quad is not viewed as just another Western vehicle.&nbsp;
Modi has sought to bolster India’s Southern credentials, including by highlighting its status as the “mother of democracy”. By framing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/is-democracy-too-expensive-for-nepal">democracy</a> as intrinsic to Indian civilisation, rather than a colonial legacy, he aligned India with ‘middle powers’ seeking to redefine global governance on their own terms.&nbsp;
To be sure, Modi has moved India away from the secular and pluralistic values that had flourished after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-goal-is-empowerment-and-independence-of-women">independence</a>, in favour of assertive <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/unconventional-convention">Hindu nationalism</a>. So many international indices have downgraded India’s democratic status that he is now seeking to create his own.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/demodification-of-india">Demodification of India</a>, Chandrakishore&nbsp;
Modi is the second leader of independent India (after Jawaharlal Nehru) to be elected to three consecutive terms, and remains a dominant force in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/india-s-faith-in-politics">Indian politics</a>.&nbsp;
And at a time of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-water-and-electricity">rapid geopolitical change</a>, he is committed to leveraging his position, and India’s profound strengths, to turn it into a global player. India has long had the potential to be an active shaper of international affairs. It has now arrived. &nbsp;&nbsp;© Project Syndicate
Ana Palacio, a former minister of foreign affairs of Spain and former senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group, is a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University.

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India has arrived

It has been four days since Donald Trump officially re-entered the White House, and he has already signed executive orders and pardoned dozens of his storm troopers. The best thing you can say is that at least he keeps his promises.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trumpet-call">America’s election</a> is not just about the United States. The rest of the world does not vote for American presidents, but what they do and do not do has far-reaching consequences for the planet. Quitting the climate deal in the middle of the Los Angeles wildfire calamity, and dropping out of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the world prepares for the next pandemic is not even in America’s own self-interest.
The presence at the swearing in of tech billionaires, who were seated in front of Trump’s own cabinet picks, rammed home the point that America is now an oligarchy. The tech and business world have fallen in line, with global implications. Meta’s announcement that it will stop fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram will impact Nepali society and politics .&nbsp;
Trump spoke with Chinese president Xi Jinping before his inauguration, and it seems to have been a meeting of minds between the two authoritarians: the TikTok ban was immediately halted. For all the bluster and brinkmanship, those threats against China appear to be just bargaining.&nbsp;
Trump invited President Xi for his inauguration, who sent his deputy Han Zheng. India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was also present.&nbsp;
For Nepal, the impact of Trump’s second term will be governed by how US relations with India and China develop in the next five years. Having said that, the US Embassy in Kathmandu has always held importance beyond Nepal to serve as a Tibet listening-post. If the Trump-Xi bonhomie grows, it will affect US support for the Tibet freedom movement, and the Dalai Lama succession question.
On India, the Trump administration is expected to continue Joe Biden’s strategy of holding a slightly reluctant India in its Indo-Pacific embrace to counter China’s increasing economic and military influence in the region.&nbsp;
Trump has not followed through on his threats of tariffs on Chinese imports from “day one”. This suggests a less hostile and more pragmatic approach towards Beijing. That did not mean he held back criticism of China in his speech: notably when he blamed China for being a big polluter, and not paying more to WHO.&nbsp;
“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said after announcing the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and revoking the Biden administration’s EV mandate.&nbsp;
It is true that China has become the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, although in per capita terms it is still much below the US. China also leads in global renewable energy efforts, it is the biggest manufacturer and exporter of EVs, and has made photovoltaics, lithium batteries and wind turbines affordable to the world.
One can dismiss territorial claims on Panama, Greenland and the ‘Gulf of America’ as deranged, but his “drill, baby, drill” and “frack away, Pennsylvania” all promise to keep America as the biggest producer of fossil fuels. &nbsp;
As a consequence, America itself will see more intense hurricanes, coastal erosion, wildfires and weather extremes. But it will be countries like Nepal at the frontlines of the climate emergency that will pay the heaviest price.&nbsp;
Last year was the warmest year on record as global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial level for the first time – that target was set to be met by 2050 in Paris ten years ago. Nepal has experienced its warmest January yet this year, and the wildfire season has started early.
Another direct impact on Nepalis will be Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. The crackdown at the Mexican border will affect hundreds of Nepalis taking the backdoor routes to reach America. Stricter immigration will also affect tens of thousands of Nepalis who are currently in the US or are planning to go study there.&nbsp;
Budget cuts of USAID for reproductive health, human rights and social welfare, and US withdrawal from being the largest donor of WHO will mean less funding for healthcare and the social sector in Nepal.&nbsp;
Washington will further lose its moral high ground in Nepal on issues like transitional justice, human rights, democracy and press freedom. Nepal was already feeling less pressure from the West, and it is now steadily aligning itself with curbs in resurgent India and China.&nbsp;
It will be even more hypocritical for the US to espouse freedom and democracy in the rest of the world after its refusal to call Israel out on its war crimes in Gaza. Trump will take credit for the Gaza ceasefire, and will lean on Ukraine to accept peace terms with Russia.
By the looks of it, Trump is just getting started.&nbsp;
Shristi Karki

Trump’s Second Coming

There is cautious optimism after the Indian election results that the semi-comatose <a href="https://www.saarc-sec.org/index.php/media-centre/press-releases" target="_blank">South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC)</a> can be revived. The Kathmandu-headquartered bloc has been in limbo since November 2016, when Pakistan was set to host its 19th Summit, but India pulled out after <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Militants-attack-Army-headquarters-in-Uri-near-LoC/article55941862.ece">an attack on its military in Kashmir</a> which it blamed on Pakistan. "Bilateral grievances should not stand in the way of advancing the cause of a regional organisation,” says Arjun Bahadur Thapa, who was Secretary General in 2014 when the last SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu. ”India’s foreign policy is not dictated by politicians, but by its powerful bureaucracy. Modi's decreased political clout may dent his confidence on the global stage, but will most likely not impact India’s stance towards Pakistan, or SAARC." In the past 10 years, New Delhi has bypassed SAARC to pivot eastwards through overlapping sub-regional fora like BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal Initiative) and <a href="https://www.bimstec.org">BIMSTEC</a> (the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) that includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.&nbsp; The new SAARC Secretary General Golam Sarwar from Bangladesh has been touring South Asian capitals to try to resuscitate the regional organisation. This week he was in <a href="https://www.saarc-sec.org/index.php/press-release/354-the-foreign-minister-of-sri-lanka-reaffirms-sri-lanka-s-unwavering-commitment-to-saarc">Colombo</a>, after visiting <a href="https://www.saarc-sec.org/index.php/press-release/348-secretary-general-s-engagements-in-new-delhi-and-islamabad">Islamabad and New Delhi</a>. “To interpret the recent elections in India as a defeat of the BJP and the weakening of PM Modi will be a faulty approach to suggest a revival of the SAARC process,” says Nishchal Pandey at the Centre for South Asian Studies in Kathmandu. “India pays the biggest chunk of the annual SAARC budget and it is therefore also in the interest of Indian taxpayers to see that a Summit is held." Indeed, as long as SAARC is held <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/indo-pak-tension-hits-saarc-climate-action">hostage by geopolitics, not much may change</a>. New Delhi prefers bilateral dealings rather than multilateral ones, and India-Pakistan tension as well as turmoil in Afghanistan have kept SAARC in limbo.&nbsp; “Modi 3.0 has great power ambitions for India including redefining India’s identity on the world stage,” Pandey adds. “But this will not be achieved unless long-standing disputes are resolved.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240621050636_4679d14e0718498e63bd52bf32dd13f940c83e1aa7dfd42f502259e3ae18e550.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240621050636_4679d14e0718498e63bd52bf32dd13f940c83e1aa7dfd42f502259e3ae18e550" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="SAARC Secretariat NT"> <figcaption>SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu. Photo: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption> </figure>  India’s preference for BIMSTEC serves to strengthen ties with ASEAN, and also offset <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-india-us-nepal-china-quadrangle">China’s growing influence</a> in the region. Other countries like Nepal which are members of both SAARC and BIMSTEC <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/sorry-state">have also been pulled along</a> by New Delhi.&nbsp; “For Nepal, SAARC seems to have taken a back seat to partnerships like BBIN and BIMSTEC as we look towards sub-regional alliances rather than regional ones,” said Nepali Congress leader Minendra Rijal at a geopolitical conference in Kathmandu last week. “But we do not get to hear a lot from the Pakistanis, who have a very different perspective on SAARC.” After being elected for the first time in 2014, Modi invited all SAARC leaders to his inauguration, announcing India's ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. For his second swearing-in in 2019, he invited only <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/bimstec-facelift#">BIMSTEC members</a>, extending India’s regional policy to ‘Neighbourhood First and Act East’. This month, Modi invited neighbouring country leaders, but added Mauritius and Seychelles to the list, indicating another geopolitical priority: the Indian Ocean. “Global challenges demand collective action,” Secretary General Sarwar told a recent Indian Ocean Conference in Perth. “Investing in international partnership, diplomacy, and development initiatives foster peace, stability and shared prosperity.” Pessimists say SAARC is <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/forget-SAARC-go-for-bilateralism-or-sub-regionalism,402">as good as defunct</a>, but optimists still see a role for the group since many of the region’s problems can only be resolved through cross border collaboration in improving connectivity, trade, poverty, and coping with the climate crisis. Other foreign policy experts see <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/hindutva-juggernaut-hits-a-speed-bump">a weaker BJP</a> forcing Modi to mitigate attacks on minorities and the media at home, but may compensate by being more hawkish on Pakistan and in the neighbourhood. As current chair and the site of its headquarters, Nepal should be playing a catalytic role, says Pandey: “It is the obligation of the chair to ensure that the organisation is not dismantled through inaction and indecision. We must be able to impress upon the Indian leadership that it has been a decade since Nepal has been chair and we need to earnestly pass on the baton to the next country.”&nbsp; Bangladesh was a prime mover of SAARC when it was founded in 1985 in Dhaka. Zafar Sobhan, founding editor of the <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com">Dhaka Tribune </a>brought his family for a holiday to Nepal this week and told us: “The disintegration of SAARC has been a tragedy for all South Asian countries. It would be in everyone's interests to revive it, but with the prevailing political winds in India, I don't see it happening. We are all the poorer for this loss, both literally and figuratively.”&nbsp;

Shristi Karki

Retrofitting SAARC

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722fef9c7e80680e0c253ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3821" height="2788"/><figcaption>Pushpa Kamal Dahal with Jagat Prakash Nadda, national president of BJP. Photo: JAGAT PRAKASH NADDA/TWITTER</figcaption></figure>Barely days after Pushpa Kamal Dahal met the visiting head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China, Liu Jianchao in Kathmandu, he was off to New Delhi.The undisputed supremo of Nepal’s Maoists has been known to play all sides before, but this puts his balancing act on a whole new level. It also shows that Nepal’s giant neighbours are engaged in a tug-o-war as the country heads for federal and provincial elections on 18 November.Ever since Nepal was founded as a nation state, the country had to do  a tightrope between British India and the Chinese Empire. Recognising this, Prithvi Narayan Shah famously compared Nepal to a yam ensconced between two boulders, and laid out the doctrine of equidistance.Inspired by Mao Zedong, Dahal took on the mantle of ‘Prachanda’ to wage an armed struggle that killed 17,000 Nepalis. At the time, Dahal paraphrased Nepal’s founding king, to describe the country as a “dynamite between two boulders”.Here is a man who in 1998 declared a ‘tunnel war’ to prepare for an Indian invasion, but who spent eight of the ten war years at a safe house in a New Delhi suburb.After the conflict ended in 2006, Dahal has been prime minister twice. The first time, he had to resign after barely a year in power after overstretching his hand in an unsuccessful bid to sack Nepal Army chief Gen Rookmangud Katuwal in 2009, and replace him with a yes-man.It did not go unnoticed that President Ram Baran Yadav had to force him out after some critical late night intervention from New Delhi.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/63722ff39c7e80680e0c253fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="600"><figcaption>Head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China, Liu Jianchao with Pushpa Kamal Dahal in Kathandu last week.</figcaption></figure>Last week’s visit by Liu Jianchao and Dahal’s sudden air dash to Delhi prove once more that Nepal’s domestic politics is, more than ever, a reflection of regional geopolitics.The Chinese, who had so far been content with letting Nepal languish in New Delhi’s sphere of influence have, since Xi Jinping, been taking a keener interest in micro-managing Kathmandu's power corridors.Beijing’s real worry is not so much about India as it is heightened American activities in Nepal, mainly vis-a-vis Tibet. The active lobbying by the Chinese against the US-supported Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and lately the scrapped State Partnership Program (SPP) pointed to this.The Chinese have openly expressed their <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/one-party-two-countries/">desire for Nepal’s Communist parties to unite</a>, and actually fulfilled that wish with the merger of the UML and the Maoists into the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) after the alliance’s overwhelming victory in the 2017 election.And when Dahal fell out with prime minister K P Oli and the power struggle threatened the NCP, Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi shuttled between the Oli and Dahal residences in Kathmandu to patch up their differences.As it turned out, not only did the NCP split, but so did the UML, the MCC was ratified, and the ruling coalition in Kathmandu adopted a Indo-Western alignment.This must have unnerved the Mandarins in Beijing, who did not have to send a high level party emissary just to feel the political pulse in Kathmandu. Liu Jianchao's main aim was to reforge Communist unity ahead of November, and do a repeat of 2017.After all, the Maoists, UML and the Unified Socialists have been trying to suss things out through emissaries. So much so that it has sent off tremors within Nepali Congress (NC), where an anti-Deuba faction led by Shekhar Koirala and Gagan Thapa have been trying to get the party to contest elections on its own.Ironically, Deuba’s own position within his party is now dependent on the coalition staying intact. This in turn has made the NC almost a junior partner in the coalition, with Dahal asserting himself as heir apparent.In a meaningful <a href="https://ekantipur.com/Interview/2022/07/18/165810525150588451.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview in Delhi with Kantipur</a>, Dahal talked about meeting his ‘old friend’ in India’s intelligence apparatus who is Prime Minister Modi's National Security Adviser, and hinted that he had blessings on a rotational prime ministership with Deuba — just as he had with Oli.The danger in all this dalliance is that closer ties with India now means closer party-to-party ties with the BJP, and the prospect for instability in the Nepali polity that it entails.All this comes as the Deuba-led coalition completes one year of misrule and miscues. It has outdone the K P Oli administration in pushing through ordinance after ordinance to amend constitutional provisions, has drafted a bill to grant further immunity from prosecution for war crimes among the Maoist militia and the government.With these tectonic forces at play, the ruling class appears unable and incapable of arresting looming economic collapse.Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/deubas-mixed-report-card/">Deuba's mixed report card</a>, Editorial

Geopolitical tug-o-war over Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720f249c7e80680e0b795ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3600" height="2400"/><figcaption>Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi and diplomats after seeing off Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's plane in Kathmandu airport on 27 March.</figcaption></figure>A day after Chinese State Councilor and Foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to Nepal was announced, my Chinese professor cited a Nepali news source which he received from a foreign colleague to inform the class about the three-day visit to Kathmandu.Without timely reporting, Chinese netizens who are dependent on the official press and social media for news had been largely unaware about Wang Yi’s ‘Journey To the West’ until he was already in Nepal on 25 March.‘Journey to the West’ is a proper noun in Mandarin and derived from an extended account of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who travelled to the ‘Western regions’ of Central Asia and the Subcontinent in the 7th century to obtain sacred texts.Compared to delay in reporting Wang Yi’s Pakistan, Afghanistan and India visits, news on Weibo that he was in Kathmandu on the second day was relatively more timely. The late media reports and posts of his ‘Journey To the West’ could have been deliberate so as to make the news stale, and not create a big fuss.Although Global Times, Xinhua and other state media published articles on the visit, it was not shared on their Weibo pages because it could have likely created undesired discussions. Moreover, the visit coincided with the tragic crash on 21 March of a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 that diverted the attention of netizens.Similar low-key reporting was observed when Global Times and other state-owned media took more than a day to react to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/mcc-gets-green-light-in-nepal/">ratification of the American MCC grant</a> by Nepal’s Parliament on 27 February.At that time, Chinese cybersphere was rife with reference of other international websites and expressing curiosity about why the MCC news was not trending on Weibo yet. Whether this was intentional or not, it successfully suppressed the hashtag ‘Nepal approved US aid deal’ (尼泊尔通过美援助协议) which reached the Top 11 on Weibo as soon as the state media reported about it.  (Screenshot below)It is most likely that in the case of Nepal, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/">uproar over the MCC ratification</a> on Weibo was toned down to welcome Wang Yi’s visit to Nepal. Besides the nine agreements signed between Nepal and China during his visit this week, a bigger takeaway was <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/wjbz_663308/activities_663312/202203/t20220327_10656328.html">Wang Yi’s talks about China’s ‘Three Supports’ for Nepal</a>:1) Supporting Nepal in pursuing a development path suited to its national condition2) Supporting Nepal in pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies3) Supporting Nepal in participating in the Belt and Road cooperation to a greater extentOne article in the Chinese media noted that the second and third ‘supports’ in particular were a clear reminder to Nepal that it should remain independent in its relations with China, and take the long-term bilateral relations into consideration.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720f279c7e80680e0b795bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="1012"><figcaption>The hashtag尼泊尔通过美援助协议 (Nepal approved US aid deal) trends at Top 11 on Weibo on 1 March, 2022</figcaption></figure>Moreover, Nepal ‘should not be easily deceived by the US investment’ and ‘$500 million is not worth the sacrifice of Nepal's sovereignty’.In a recent <a href="https://weibo.com/ttarticle/x/m/show/id/2309404752126701339032?_wb_client_=1">interview with the China’s state-media</a>, Wang Yi admitted that his visit to South Asia came at a time of the spreading spillover effect of the Ukraine crisis and threats to world peace. He confirmed that China’s neighborhood holds a top position in Beijing’s overall diplomacy, saying it was “better to be a close neighbour than a distant relative” to South Asian countries.While Nepal’s own mainstream press focussed on the nine agreements inked during Wang Yi’s visit and photo-ops with Nepal’s leaders, Chinese media and cybersphere were fixated on Nepal’s reiteration of the One China Policy and commitment towards ‘<a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1256876.shtml">never allowing any forces to use the Nepali territory to engage in any anti-China activities</a>’.Prof Xue Xiaorong of the School of Marxism at Fudan University, who has over 170k followers on Weibo, posted that the ‘explanatory notes’ on MCC ratification was Nepal’s way of expressing goodwill to China, and the reason behind Nepal’s firm commitment to Minister Wang was to reassure China that it has not sold out its sovereignty to the Americans.This was met with sarcastic comments by some Chinese social media users who urged China not to trust a ‘sold country’. A <a href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0YcotBZyChOXSThRyIy6UQ">WeChat page reporting on Nepal, Xin Niboer (新尼泊尔),</a> dug out a relatively obscure news item of a small protest on Sunday in Janakpur against the 9-point agreement between Nepal and China.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101148/63720f299c7e80680e0b795cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="585">Besides the expected meetings with President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Deuba, Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka , Wang Yi also met two Communist leaders Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Centre and K P Oli of the UML .While Wang Yi’s talk with Dahal were reported with predictable remarks from both sides thanking each other for their effort and support, the meeting with Oli was cited in the Chinese media with greater sentiment.“<a href="https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2022_03_28_632119_s.shtml">You are an old friend to the Chinese people</a>,” Wang Yi is reported to have told Oli, reminding him that it was when he was prime minister in 2019 that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/president-xi-in-kathmandu/">Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to Nepal</a> which ‘achieved important outcomes and brought bilateral relations to a new level’.This reporting could signal that the tables may have turned on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/what-the-chinese-think-about-nepals-maoists/">Dahal’s positive impression in China as a ‘Maoist’ leader</a>. Some comments on Chinese social media remarked that ‘this was not the same Prachanda’ as the one in 2006. Others joked that <a href="https://news.ifeng.com/history/4/200703/0319_338_89975.shtml">Prachanda</a> was the rabbit in the race with the turtle and had underestimated the ‘intensity of the struggle’ back then.Another comment called Wang Yi’s meetings with Nepal’s two top Communist leaders as sending a message to the Americans that ‘if they can interfere in Nepal’s internal affairs then so will China’.Regardless, as much as Nepal has stressed on supporting One China Policy, China has equally stressed on non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.It was not lost on many that Wang Yi’s visit to Nepal came just over a month after Nepal’s Parliament approved the MCC. This undoubtedly is a factor that has made Beijing rethink its Nepal policy, which is an extension to the whole region.In his interview in state media, Wang Yi stressed that his South Asia tour was to stress the importance to work with neighbours, and ‘<a href="https://weibo.com/ttarticle/x/m/show/id/2309404752126701339032?_wb_client_=1">to build an Asian community with a shared future</a>’.Aneka Rebecca Rajbhandari is a Masters student of Chinese Politics at Renmin University of China.

Reaction to Wang Yi’s Nepal visit in Chinese media

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd5b9c7e80680e0a0bddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2058" height="1514"/><figcaption>The 2nd Battalion 5th Gurkha Rifles at Ahnai Tangi in Waziristan on 14 January 1920 as part of Britain's 'Third Afghan War'. Painting by Fred Roe at the National Army Museum.</figcaption></figure>Even though Nepal and Afghanistan are separated geographically, Nepali and Pashtun warriors have met face-to-face over more than 200 years. While the Pashtun were in their home territory, the Nepalis were fronting for others, and now with the Taliban’s second-time total victory in Afghanistan, new dynamics will have to evolve.As current chair of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Nepal must take the lead in, on the one hand, helping the world accept the fait accompli of the Taliban victory, while on the other get the didactic, xenophobic Taliban to accept the values of pluralism and multilateralism. As a country which holds these values dear, Nepal should reach out of its own cocoon to do what it can.The history of Afghan-Nepal relations goes back two centuries, with what the British colonisers called the ‘First Afghan War’ and continued through the ‘Third Afghan War’ against the Pashtun in 1919.  These were Britain’s wars in Afghanistan, and the Nepalis who joined at various times were straight-off mercenaries, parts of the British Gurkhas, and even the national Nepali army. Most recently, British Gurkhas were fielded as part of the ISAF/NATO force, or were recruited by western military contractors to guard Western bases and embassies.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd5e9c7e80680e0a0bdejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="751">The Army of the IndusNepal is situated in the mid-Himalaya, while Afghanistan sits astride the Pamir and Hindu Kush, 2,000km away. Even at its height, the expansionist Gorkha Empire could not go beyond the Sutlej River. But these are the only two countries in South Asia that fought off colonialism. Afghans are known for their fierce resistance to foreign hegemony, as were Nepalis, but Afghanistan has nevertheless been serving continuously as a ‘fighting field’ for outsiders, while at best Nepal has been a ‘playing field’.Historically, there were indirect links between the central Himalaya and the Hindu Kush/Pamir: from the ancient Aryans down to the Moghuls, it was through the Khyber Pass and other northwestern passages that migrations and conquests of the Indus-Ganges plains occurred. Afghanistan stretched outside the country’s modern boundary, and included the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of present-day Pakistan.It was the colonial British that separated the Pashtun people with a new boundary called the ‘Durand Line’. This forced demarcation has relevance today because, while Afghanistan is ethnically diverse with Kyrgyz, Baloch, Hazara, Uzbek and other communities, the Taliban leadership and rank-and-file are dominated by Pashtuns.Even though Afghanistan and Nepal were spared colonial rule, Afghanistan suffered much more foreign interference than Nepal. Located between Czarist Russia, Central Asia and the British Empire and with Persia to the west, Afghanistan was (and remains) a strategic prize. Nepal, on the other hand, was protected by malarial jungles to the south and the world’s highest mountains to the north, and neighbouring powers found it more advantageous to maintain it as a buffer state.When the Gorkha Empire felt threatened by the East India Company in the mid-1700s, it sent feelers for help to the Maratha and Sikh kings. Though probable, we do not have historical evidence to indicate that Kathmandu also appealed to the rulers in Kabul.Meanwhile, even before the end of the Anglo-Nepal war of 1814-1816, some Nepali soldiers had already gone over to the British side, marking the beginnings of the ‘Gurkha’ brigades. After the bloody defeat at Nalapani, the Gorkhali general Bal Bhadra Kunwar escaped to join the forces of Sikh king Ranjit Singh in Lahore. The Nepali word लाहुरे for soldiers and workers who go abroad is derived from the name of this city.We do not know what happened to the other Gorkhali troops who went with him, but Bal Bhadra himself was killed in battle when the Sikhs were fighting the Pasthuns in Naushera, which was then Afghan territory.There are other indirect Afghan influences in Nepal. The words रुपियाँ and अशर्फी were introduced in India by Sher Shah Suri, who became ruler of Mughlan after briefly ousting emperor Humayun from Delhi. The terms percolated up to Nepal. Although Sher Shah was born in Bihar state bordering Nepal, his ancestral village was Sur in the Sulaiman Range, within Afghan territory.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd619c7e80680e0a0bdfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="945"></figure>British forces together with Nepali soldiers of the 'Army of the Indus' entering the Bolan Pass en route from Quetta to Afghanistan in 1839. The campaign ended in a bloody disaster. Engraved by Louis and Charles Haghe.Nepalis and Pashtuns came into more direct contact during the East India Company’s Afghan Campaign of 1839-42 when an ‘Army of the Indus’ was assembled to invade Afghanistan. This was part of the Great Game, when British India felt it had to contain the expansion of Czarist Russia. Thousands of troops from the early ‘Gurkha’ units were deployed on the Afghan front, and as was the practice in those days, the soldiers were accompanied by camp followers which included their wives and children.The ‘Army of the Indus’ was routed, and legend has it that only one British officer straggled out to Peshawar, though there would have been a few more. There is no count of how many Nepalis were cut down with swords in Herat, Ghazni and Kabul, or those who froze to death in the dreadful Afghan winter. Many women and children would have been enslaved by Afghan warlords.North of Kabul in Charikar Fort, hundreds Gorkhali fighters were under siege for months, with the water source blocked. When the Gorkhalis tried to break out, most were killed, except a sipahi named Motiram who managed a dangerous and arduous trek down to his cantonment in the Punjab plains to tell the tale.Najibullah to GhaniThroughout the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-will-rescue-nepalis-from-afghanistan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepalis kept going back to Afghanistan</a> – to fight. Gurkha soldiers assigned to the Durand Line engaged in frequent skirmishes with Pashtun fighters. And in 1919, while other Nepali soldiers were returning home from Belgium, France and Gallipoli, soldiers of the Nepal Army were sent to Afghanistan by Prime Minister Chandra Shumshere Rana to help the British counter a rebellion in Waziristan. Those troops for the ‘Third Afghan War’ were led by Gen Babar Sumshere.In the modern era, the people of Afghanistan suffered as super-powers muscled their way in. In 1974, Afghan king Zahir Shah was overthrown, and at the end of the Mujahideen war that followed against Soviet occupation, President Najibullah was dragged out of the UN compound where he had sought refuge, tortured and hung at the gates of Kabul in 1996 by the Taliban.Unable to face the resistance of Afghan guerrillas, the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989 and cast off Najibullah in 1991, just as the Americans abandoned Ashraf Ghani in 2021. During this whole time, Afghan polity was decimated as a result of interference by the Soviets, the Americans after 9/11, NATO forces, Pakistanis and Saudis, who together spent trillions of dollars.While all that money landed up at the hands of the Afghan elite and warlords, ordinary Afghans died and suffered. Millions became refugees in Iran and Pakistan, and more refugees are streaming out as this is written – the desperation is seen in Afghan men trying to attach themselves to C-17s on the runway at Kabul Airport this week.The irony of it all was that some of the descendants of the Gorkhali troops who fought in Helmand and Kabul nearly 200 years ago were back as part of the Gurkha units in the British deployment in the same places as a part of NATO’s ISAF mission. The blood and sweat they sacrificed seems to have been in vain, as President Ashraf Ghani flew out of Kabul on 15 August. Ghani said he wished to prevent bloodshed, and would doubtless have also feared meeting the same fate as Najibullah. But all this seems to have been part of a larger withdrawal deal worked out between the Americans and the Taliban in talks in Doha.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfd649c7e80680e0a0be0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1474" height="816"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>One of the consultants that the World Bank brought to Nepal in 2006 to advise leaders here about post-conflict rehabilitation was <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13470#.YRvjiS1w3OQ" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D13470%23.YRvjiS1w3OQ&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1629372271640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHeMUVxCU735OL-66D-E9bbRhVIQw">Ashraf Ghani himself. </a>The author of the book he co-wrote with Clare Lockhart, Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World, Ghani wrote in one of his columns for Nepali Times then: ‘Surely the people of Nepal deserve leadership from their politicians to ensure that Nepal embarks upon a path towards a new future. A new future is no longer a dream, it has become possible.’Nepal has not been brutalised and ravaged by a series of proxy wars like Afghanistan has for the past four decades. It did suffer the violent 10-year internal conflict, but the peace process took hold, and the country held two elections to a Constituent Assembly that wrote the new Constitution. Afghanistan’s violence, the killing of innocents and religion-laced extremism, have been at a whole different level.If it was soldiers that Nepal used to send to Afghanistan in the past two centuries, in the last two decades it was Nepali development experts, gender and media consultants and governance advisers who went to Kabul on behalf of the UN or other partners. And then there are the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-repatriation-from-kabul-starts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">estimated 15,000 security guards</a> protecting various embassies, hotels, bases and installations in Kabul. Nepali were attracted to dangerous work in Afghanistan because it paid much better, even though they were often hired as guards of the Western soldiers.While some Nepalis are starting to return on repatriation flights this week, there are many stranded in Kabul and fearful about their future. The Nepal government must proactively establish contact with the new regime in Afghanistan in order to ensure the safety of its citizens there. It is also hoped that the soft language emanating from the Taliban victors, about allowing safe passage to all who seek to exit, reflects a genuine commitment.Nepal is currently chair of SAARC, and it could use its tenure to bring Afghanistan back into the South Asian fold even as the Taliban go about establishing themselves. Kathmandu must strive to establish bilateral relations, while remaining outside sphere of Indian, Chinese, Pakistani, Saudi or Western interests there.China and Russia have already made their moves to establish relations with the Taliban government. New Delhi has been stung by Ashraf Ghani’s downfall, given their steadfast support for him, while there seems to be some rejoicing in Islamabad. If Nepal takes a proactive diplomatic approach (in a manner that would be wholly new to it) Kathmandu could use its bilateral relations to usher a new era of peace in the region. For Nepal as a country that has been so insular in past two decades, that may seem a tall order, but some self-confidence in foreign policy can make it happen.The immediate priority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, is to ensure the security and repatriation<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-repatriation-from-kabul-starts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> </a>of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/bring-us-home-says-nepali-in-kabul/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepalis presently in Kabul</a> and across Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Nepali civil society members must reach out to their counterparts in Afghanistan and offer safe haven should it be required.While the Taliban spokesman has said all are safe, there is no saying when Afghan <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/call-to-evacuate-afghan-journalists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">journalists,</a> gender and human rights activists may not need support and refuge. Afghanistan is the only country in South Asia whose nationals must get a visa to come to Nepal. In the name of South Asian solidarity, ‘visa on arrival’ should now also be available for Afghan citizens.The Taliban has been using Sharia law to justify its extreme form of patriarchy to prevent women and girls from equal rights, agency and education. It has also been violently suppressing minorities like the Shi’a and Hazara. The group that blew up the historical statue of the Buddha in Bamiyan in 2001 is now ruling Afghanistan, and there are genuine fears that the Taliban will return to its old ways.The fact that the Taliban is in control in Kabul is a fait accompli. Nepal must accept this and, while working to extricate its citizens from Afghanistan, must help Kabul rejoin the South Asian sphere.

Nepal and the Taliban’s second coming

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

Thousands of Nepali students dreaming of an American education have been forced to look elsewhere as the Trump administration’s visa restrictions make their future uncertain.
The US was long considered a top destination for higher studies, making Nepal the 10th biggest country of origin for international students in America.&nbsp;
However, that number has seen a significant decline with the total for Nepali students now at 16,482. Some 8,000 Nepali students obtained no-objection certificates to study in the US from the Ministry of Education in the past year.&nbsp;
India, Australia, Canada, South Korea, United Kingdom and Japan are the other popular destinations for Nepali students. There are no clear numbers for Nepalis going to India, but a slight decline was noted this year after the deaths of two female students.
The US State Department has issued a circular to its embassies not to issue new visas to applicants until further notice. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the directive stated that the department planned to expand the screening of applicants' social media.&nbsp;
While new applicants are barred including those applying for visitor visas, students with scheduled interviews are allowed to proceed.
“Many of our students are affected by the new restrictions, but those who had applied for student visas earlier have got interview dates,” one Kathmandu-based college counsellor told us.
Meanwhile, even foreign students with spotless records already in the US have not been spared, as visa scrutiny intensifies under the new policy. In a move that underscores the growing sense of insecurity, many US colleges advised international students to carry their passports and documents at all times, even when traveling locally.
“Me and my friends did not go home this summer because we were not sure we would be allowed back, so we just went to Niagara Falls,” said a Nepali undergrad in Ohio, who like many interviewed for this report did not want her name used for fear of repercussion.
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Nepali students have adopted a cautious stance, with many choosing not to return home during summer vacation due to fear of visa revocations as well as travel bans. Meanwhile, over 7,000 Nepalis with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will have to come back to Nepal by 5 August or face deportation. Thirty-seven were flown back to Kathmandu on Omni Air last week.
“The US is one of the most sought-after destinations for higher education, and the ban will definitely impact bright students,” says Narottam Aryal of the King’s College in Kathmandu.
Indeed, Nepali undergraduates admitted into Ivy League colleges for the 2025 academic year have been asked to look for alternatives. The entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarships Board resigned on Wednesday citing interference from the Trump administration on the selection of this year’s cohort. Some Nepali students already on Fulbright scholarships have noted disruptions, delays and even cancellation of stipends.&nbsp;
The student visa restrictions were initially just for foreign students admitted to Harvard University, but it was later extended to all Chinese students and now to all students. Universities like Columbia which actively recruit foreign students, face sharp enrolment declines, threatening their financial stability and diversity.
An Indian female PhD candidate at Columbia University had her visa revoked by the US State Department, and said she was targeted on the basis of her social media posts on Israeli military attacks in Gaza. Social media vetting of political activism has raised concerns about privacy and freedom of expression in a country where such rights were a given.
Many students have been informed via email that their visas have been revoked for getting speeding or parking tickets, but even others with no criminal record have been affected. The fear of deportation looms large amongst international students, including those from Nepal.&nbsp;
For most Nepalis who migrate to the US for education, the journey is a high-stakes investment. They come largely from middle-class families, often rely on a patchwork of scholarships, work-study programs, loans, or even the sale of family assets to afford fees.
Most Nepali students pursue STEM subjects which offer extended Optional Practical Training (OPT) periods that help fund their education. But with the US backsliding on education and humanitarian matters, countries like the UK and Canada are becoming more attractive despite their own recent stricter controls on student visas.&nbsp;
The UK universities saw a 63% rise in Nepali students’ admissions in 2024. Japan is another popular destination with 64,816 Nepali students enrolled as of 2024.
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Already, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia are poised to benefit from the increased scrutiny of US student visas. Several Hong Kong universities are offering unconditional admission to affected students, while Malaysian institutions are targeting previously US-bound Asian students. China and India have 330,000 and 280,000 students respectively in America, but the numbers for China have seen a sharp drop in the past year.
Elsewhere, branch campuses of American institutions such as NYU in Abu Dhabi, Georgetown in Dubai and Northwestern in Doha are getting more admission applications, and universities in the Gulf region are expanding infrastructure to accommodate those who would otherwise have gone to the US.&nbsp;
Even educational institutions in Nepal are hopeful that the US visa restrictions can be an opportunity to at least keep Nepali undergrads in Nepal, and also attract foreign students from the region.&nbsp;
“Many students might choose to complete their undergraduate degree here in Nepal and then move abroad for their Master’s degree later,” says Aryal of King’s College. “There was a need for quality higher education in Nepal anyway in terms of innovation and opportunities, so this could be the time to reduce our dependence on other countries.”
Nepal’s strategic position between India and China makes it sensitive to US policy shifts. India, a key ally, is also under US scrutiny for potential student travel restrictions. Chinese universities are already offering more scholarships to Nepali talent to capitalise on the US retreat.
American universities have challenged student visa restrictions in the courts. A federal court in Boston revoked the blanket ban on Harvard, and the State Department has ordered the resumption of processing student and exchange visitor visas.&nbsp;
Some are still hoping that President Trump will backtrack on the student visa restrictions, just like he has done with many of his more drastic executive orders.
Even so, the visa see-saw and longer-term uncertainties about living in the United States and its education system means students across the world are making alternative plans.
Says Aryal: “Policies of foreign countries change according to their needs, so excessive dependence was never a good idea. We should work to create different opportunities and choices of higher education within Nepal, so students are retained.” &nbsp;

America no longer prime destination for Nepali students

While Nepal was hosting the Sagarmatha Sambaad international climate conference in Kathmandu this month, on Mt Everest it was pretty much business as usual.&nbsp; The signs of climate breakdown are all there: a river now runs through Base Camp in summer, the Khumbu Icefall is more unstable, and there are more &nbsp;frequent avalanches. When expeditions arrived in March, the mountains were bare: it had not snowed since September, but then blizzards dumped unseasonal snow in May. And despite climate worries, such is the pull of Himalayan mountaineering that the Everest Industry showed no signs of slowdown. More than 600 international climbers and their Nepali guides had made it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. At one point there were an estimated 2,000 people in the tent city on the Khumbu Glacier. All the ropes and ladders on the Icefall came down on Thursday, marking the official end of the spring climbing season, and just in time to avoid a monsoon cyclone approaching from the Bay of Bengal. It has been an action-packed season. One factor could be that Everest fees will go up from September: each foreign climber needs to pay a $15,000 royalty, up from the present $11,000. The cost for a Nepali climber on the South Col route will also go up: from Rs75,000 to Rs150,000.&nbsp; The fee to climb Everest in autumn is $7,500 (up from $5,500), but most climbers still prefer spring. Winter permit fee (December-February) is only $3,750 per person and the mountain is now also open for monsoon (June-August) climbs, when the fee is ever lower at $2,750. The revised rule also makes it mandatory for every two climbers on an 8,000m peak to hire one Nepali mountain guide.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046" data-rendition-name="original" width="931" height="732" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry graph 1"> </figure>  In addition, climbers also have to pay for porters and guides, equipment, Base Camp costs, Ice Fall and fixed rope team fees, so climbing Everest does not come cheap. But such is the draw of climbing the world’s highest peak that some say the increased fees will not diminish the crowds next year. The government has tried to spread expeditions out to other seasons and other 8,000ers, but with not much success. Earlier this year, Nepal unilaterally increased the number of 8,000m peaks to 14 by adding six more sub-summits to broaden the choice for climbers. Added were: Yalung Kang (8,505m), Yalung Kang West (8,077m) &nbsp;Kangchenjunga Central (8,473m), Kangchenjunga South (8,476m), Lhotse Middle (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,400m).&nbsp; The announcement could go against the accepted topographic criteria that a stand alone peak has to be at least 300m higher than an adjoining prominence, and at more than 3km isolation from it. The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) still recognises only 14 mountains as eight-thousanders, and only eight of those are in Nepal, or on the border with China. Nepal’s revised mountaineering regulations also increased the insurance coverage of high-altitude workers to protect porters and high altitude guides who usually take more risks on the mountains. Rescue teams and clean-up campaigners to collect trash and remove bodies of dead climbers up to Camp IV of Mt Everest do not need permits.&nbsp; The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is now using drones to fly down trash in 20kg sacks. Each climber is also required to bring down at least 6kg of waste and not just their own, but this rule is erratically enforced. With five fatalities on Everest and Lhotse, Spring 2025 had a historically low death toll. Another five climbers died on Annapurna, Kangchenjunga and Makalu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a" data-rendition-name="original" width="665" height="740" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest industry graph 2"> </figure>  Journalist Ben Ayers who ran the Everest Live social media channel from Everest Base Camp with daily updates credited the low death rate to dramatic rescues of climbers from the ‘Death Zone’ by their Nepali guides and longline helievacs — the visuals all uploaded on YouTube.&nbsp; “Ironically, this perception of safety is bringing more and more inexperienced climbers to the mountain, and they need more rescues,” Ayers said in one of his dispatches.&nbsp; American expedition chronicler and summiteer Alan Arnette suspects there is a lot of under-reporting given that the jet stream and storms were lashing Everest even till late in the season. He told us: “I heard a lot about frostbite and rescues that were not made public. It’s become practically impossible to cover the details on Everest. All the teams report nice news, and they don’t talk about bad stuff to avoid hurting businesses.” Although trash on Nepal’s mountains makes headlines, what does not receive as much attention is the climate impact of so many expeditions. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conference sidestepped this issue, which is ironic given that the impact of climate breakdown is most evident on Himalayan peaks and their glaciers.&nbsp; <h2>Need for Speed</h2> The big stories this year have been about speed-running from their home cities to the top of Everest. Ukrainian entrepreneur Andrew Ushakov flew out of JFK on 15 May at 10:15AM Nepal time, and was on the summit 3 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes later on 19 May at 9:22AM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry"> <figcaption>Andrew Ushakov at the summt. Photo: ELITE EXPED</figcaption> </figure>  “I could never find the time for the traditional 40-50 days of acclimatisation,” Ushakov explained matter-of-factly. His ‘Everest Sea-to-Summit’ climb was possible because he spent 400 hours in hypoxic sleep tents over the past four years in New York. However, Ushakov did use ropes already fixed, hired four Nepali guides, helicoptered to Base Camp, and used much more oxygen than an average climber. And after the climb, Ushakov was arrested at Kathmandu airport for being in possession of $20,000 of undeclared cash and spent a night in jail and fined $60,000.&nbsp; The other speedsters were Garth Miller, Alastair Cairns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington, all former British Army commandos. They left London and summited five days later on 21 May, and flew right back. They also used hypoxic tents to simulate the thin air high on Everest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="810" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry "> <figcaption>All four members of the Furtenbach team at the summit. Photo: Sandro Gromen-Hayes</figcaption> </figure>  But more controversial was their use of xenon gas therapy in a German hospital to ramp up the production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobins in their blood. Xenon is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for being performance enhancing in sports. Expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach said this rule does not apply to mountaineering, as it is not a regulated sport like swimming. Nepal has no rules about xenon, but the Department of Tourism said it was launching an ‘investigation’ to decide on future policy since it is difficult to ban xenon, but allow oxygen. The controversy has also divided the mountaineering community, with some climbers saying they just want to maximise their chances of survival. Spending less time on the mountain could make climbing safer by reducing avalanche risk. It would also mean less trash on the mountains, but it would reduce the income of Nepal’s expedition industry. It is also unclear how much of the success was due to xenon therapy and whether the ex-special forces were already in good physical shape.&nbsp; The need for speed hides the fact that climbing in the Himalaya is dangerous business, and climbers cannot sprint to the top just by huffing xenon. But ultra-fast climbs could be charged more, and the revenue generated can be used to establish state-of-the-art rescue operations, and increase pay and insurance for guides. Two other speed chasers this season were Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff and American Tyler Andrews, both on Everest without oxygen. Andrews choppered to Base Camp to catch a weather window, but turned back from 8,500m due to high winds. Heavy snow and wind also forced Egloff to descend from 7,000m. Slow and steady climbers like Anja Blacha from Germany did make it to the summit without oxygen, while Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record with his 31st Everest summit as he led a 26-strong Indian Army group. There were 468 permits issued for foreign climbers from 48 expeditions to Everest this spring. Nepal’s other eight-thousanders together had only 17 expeditions. Nepal has more than 1,000 peaks above 6,000m, and has opened only 476 of them for climbing.&nbsp;

The Everest Industry

While Nepal marked <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a> Day on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers. Among them is Nima Doma Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest in 2019 after her husband Tshering Wangchu was among 16 crushed by an avalanche on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu">the Khumbu Icefall</a> five years earlier. A large serac broke off the West Shoulder of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry">Mt Everest </a>and fell directly on a group of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/more-porters-sick-on-everest-trail">porters and guides</a> making their way up the Icefall at 5,800m. Their bodies were flown by helicopter to Khumjung where Tshering Wangchu was born. He was excited about climbing Mt Everest for the first time.&nbsp; In Khumjung, Nima Doma felt like her own life had also ended. This was the kind of news Sherpa wives, mothers and sisters dreaded every <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-climbing-season-2025-s4abrxny">mountaineering season</a>. She stayed home for more than two years grieving, but ultimately gathered up all her emotional strength to take care of her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. Nima had grown up in Khumjung hearing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/stories-of-nepal-s-summiteers">tales of adventure on the mountains </a>from their father, Ang Chubi Sherpa who had climbed Everest in 1993. He used to bring her and her sisters and brother European chocolates after every expedition, and used to tell them that the chocolate bars grew on the mountains. “It was only after we got older did we realise that he told us that chocolates grew in the mountains so we would not worry about him putting himself in harm's way,” Nima Doma recalled with a faraway look at her home in Boulder this week. Nima went to the school that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/commemorating-edmund-hillary-in-nepal,4145">Edmund Hillary</a> opened in Khumjung till Grade 8, and then dropped out to help in the kitchen and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">tend yaks</a>. She was married off to Tshering Wangchu, who was also a high altitude guide. When Tshering went on expeditions, Nima also started working as a porter from Namche to Base Camp. It was perhaps her father’s tales of mountains of chocolates that had always attracted her to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">the peaks</a>. After her husband was killed ten years ago this month, being a widow with children was not easy for Nima Doma. But she was not alone: there were at least 200 single mothers in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khumbu-since-1950-jaww4qn0">the Khumbu</a>, and 20 of them just in Khumjung whose husbands had been killed in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/tragic-start-to-himalayan-spring-nepal,3695">mountaineering accidents</a>. Some were not even 20 years old, and had children growing up without fathers. But there were also women in the 50s whose husbands had been killed in the 1980s. Nima found sponsors for her children’s education, and moved to Kathmandu. In the capital, Sherpa widows used to meet to help each other. Some of them had joined the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) training for rock and ice climbing. “I decided that it was no use sitting home and crying anymore, after meeting other single mothers I felt less alone,” remembers Nima, who joined the Juniper Foundation and enrolled in an NMA training camp in Manang. There she climbed Chulu East (6,584m) and met Furadiki Sherpa, whose rope-fixing husband had also been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/on-mt-everest-s-70th-records-and-fatalities">killed on Everest</a> in 2013. They set themselves the goal of climbing Everest one day, and started a fund-raising drive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2678" height="1274" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  “We decided we had to overcome society’s stigma of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/widows-personal-happiness-comes-last-in-face-of-social-financial-hardships,1855">widowhood</a> and prove that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-junko-tabei">women could also climb mountains</a>,” Nima said, adding that she was inspired by Nepal’s first woman Everest summiteer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who died during her descent in 1993. Nima Doma and Furdiki climbed the technically-difficult Ama Dablam (6,812m) and then arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 2019 as part of their Two Widows Expedition with the motto, ‘So Can We’. While climbing up the Icefall Nima passed the spot where her husband had been killed. It was a jumble of constantly-shifting ice blocks bigger than houses. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. “I remember thinking, this is so difficult and dangerous. This is what my husband had to do to support our family,” Nima Doma said. “I was determined to fulfil my husband’s dream of climbing Chomolungma, and to prove to ourselves that we two women could do it.” It was 23 May 2019 when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/two-sherpa-widows-scale-everest-and-smash-stigma-idUSKCN1SU0MV/" target="_blank">Nima and Furdiki stepped on the summit</a> and looked over into Tibet, and down at Tengboche Monastery to the south.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b.png" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="1522" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  Nima Doma hugged Furdiki, took off her mask and wept. But for the first time in five years, it was not from grief but relief — relief for being free of all the sadness and sacrifices and for fulfilling her husband’s dream. They had found <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/life-after-death">life after death</a>. “I felt this immense joy to be on top of the world, it was indescribable,” Nima Doma said, “I have wept only twice in my life. Once when my husband died, and once there on top of Everest.” The tears had frozen on Nima Doma’s cheeks, as she and Furdiki headed back down the mountain.

south-asian-geopolitics