Amid India's Border Standoff, Nepal Holds Virtual Workshop with China for 'Lessons on Governance'

New Delhi: Amid India's recent tensions with Nepal and China, the two countries are set to hold a virtual workshop to share "experience on running the party and government".

While several leaders said that they were not aware of the meeting, foreign policy analysts said that Nepal 'training' was part of an exercise by Beijing to export its ideology, which goes hand-in-hand with the flexing of its financial and technological muscles across the world.

According to the Kathmandu Post, the virtual meeting was scheduled to be held from party headquarters Dhumbarahi in Kathmandu on Friday afternoon and leaders from all seven provinces were to join in, while the Communist Party of China's leaders from Tibet Autonomous Region were also said to join.

The School Department of the Nepal Communist Party, headed by Ishwar Pokhrel, is organising the meeting from the Nepali side, the report stated, adding that from the Chinese side, the International Department of the Communist Party of China, which is headed by Song Tao, is taking the lead.

The report quoted a central member on condition of anonymity, saying that he was wondering if the timing for the meeting was right, given the border stand-off between India and China and souring of the relationship between Kathmandu and New Delhi over Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura.

Last year too, weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Nepal, the ruling Nepal Communist Party had organised a two-day symposium in Kathmandu, where scores of senior Communist Party of China leaders had participated.

Though ruling party leaders had maintained that the symposium was about learning from China’s ruling party — particularly on functioning and discipline – many believed the event meant the arrival of the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s doctrine, widely known as Xi Jinping Thought, to Kathmandu.

According to party leaders, more than 100 leaders and cadres of the ruling Nepal Communist Party are scheduled to participate in the virtual meeting from Kathmandu and provinces, the report stated.