KATHMANDU, January 14 – Seeking closer ties with Nepal, China said it wanted to establish a rail-link to Kathmadu and offered to supply petroleum products to the fuel-starved country.
“The Chhinha -Tibet railway link will not end in Lhasa, as we have plans to expand it up to the Nepalese border,” the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Sunday quoting Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Cheng Xia Ling as saying.
Quoting an interview published in a local daily, Nepal weekly, Cheng said China wants to establish the road links to promote regional peace and development.
The envoy said Chinese people had an age-old dream to establish road links with South Asian countries.
“We have established very good links with 14 neighbouring countries in the region and we want to give continuity to it,” he said.
He said China also wants to supply petroleum goods to Nepal, which is facing oil crisis these days.
At present Nepal receives most of its oil supply from India.
“It is not an easy task to supply petrol from China as we need to cross thousands of kilometers of distance and Tibet having border with Nepal is at an altitude of 4,000 metres,” he pointed out.
But we are working towards developing a permanent and long term mechanism to supply petrol to Nepal from China, he said.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting Nepal has significantly increased over the past one year.
In total 20,000 Chinese tourists visited Nepal by air last year, Cheng said adding an equal number of Chinese tourists visited through land route during the period.
Nepal-China bilateral trade has crossed USD 300 million in 2007, which is an increase by 30 per cent, he pointed out.
On the agitation by Madhesi groups in Terai for an autonomous region, he said since it is “Nepal’s integral part we hope that Nepal government and Nepalese people will be able to settle the issue by themselves.
“If Nepal is in problem it will not only be a matter of concern for China but for the whole region as well,” he said.
Chinese government and people will always extend help and support to Nepal government’s efforts to protect its sovereignty and national integrity, Cheng said.
He also opposed the US government’s plan to resettle Tibetan refugees in the US.
“Tibet’s problem is an internal affair of China, so we don’t want any kind of interference in it,” he said.
