After Maoist warning, Nepal govt backtracks on tabling of US's grant assistance deal

Kathmandu [Nepal], February 16 : Facing a threat from the leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), the Sher Bahadur Deuba government has backtracked on its Tuesday's announcement to table USD 500 million US grant agreement in the country's Parliament.
Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba went against his decision to table the MCC compact despite publicly stating on Tuesday that he had even spoken with Speaker Agni Sapkota for the tabling of the Millennium Challenge Corporation-Nepal Compact at Wednesday's House meeting, The Kathmandu Post reported.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a US Foreign Assistance Agency that aims to fight poverty. Nepal was the first country in the region to qualify for the program and an agreement to this effect was signed in September 2017.
However, the MCC continues to hang in balance as successive governments in Nepal have failed to get the grant ratified by the parliament.
Nepal's government is in favour of ratifying of grant MCC-Nepal Compact despite being aware of the fact that communist parties in the ruling coalition would stand against it.
Media reports say Nepali communist leaders are under China's pressure to create trouble over the ratification of a million dollars worth of grant assistance by a US foreign aid agency.
The agreement has courted controversy since a section of the political class has argued that the MCC is part of Washington's Indo-Pacific Strategy aimed at countering China.
Meanwhile, the US has conveyed to Kathmandu that it would be forced to review its relations with Nepal if the country fails to keep up with its commitments on the USD 500 million MCC grant signed nearly five years ago.
Earlier this month, US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu said that Washington will review its relations with Nepal in the event of its failure to ratify the MCC compact from Parliament by February 28, according to the Kathmandu Post.
Earlier, MCC vice president Fatema Z Sumar had said that the February 28 deadline was set by Prime Minister Deuba and Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal through a letter the two leaders dispatched to the MCC Board chairman, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"Secretary of State Lu conveyed to Chairman Oli that the US will be forced to review its bilateral ties with Nepal if the MCC is not ratified by the given deadline set by Deuba and Dahal," Rajan Bhattarai, the head of the UML's Foreign Affairs Department, told the Post.