MCC Board meeting to be held today in Washington

KATHMANDU: A meeting of the Board of Directors of the US aid project Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is being held today in Washington.

According to the information mentioned on the website, among the six agendas, the MCC agreement with Nepal is one of them.

Nepal’s Parliament is yet to ratify the MCC agreement even four years after the signing of the agreement.

The issue of MCC has been making waves in Nepali politics with some political parties against the endorsement of the agreement saying that it was a part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS).

Even the major political parties are sharply divided over the issue, the Nepali Congress has been emphasizing the need to ratify the MCC-Compact. However, the Maoist Center and other communist parties have been protesting it.

The US has, meanwhile, has time and again reassured Nepal by sending high-level officials from Washington saying that the MCC project would not infringe upon any Article or Clause in the Constitution of Nepal, and that it was not a part of the IPS.

It should be noted that Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, visited Kathmandu and held discussions with various political leaders.

Prior to his visit, MCC Vice President Fatima Sumar visited Nepal last September and had a marathon meeting with Nepal’s political leaders, including Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, and leader of the main opposition KP Oli.

Meanwhile, some leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) have hinted that the MCC would be the agenda of the Parliament meeting that began on Tuesday.

However, the Maoist Centre, the Unified Socialist Party, and others have been reiterating that the MCC should not be endorsed without making amendments.

Meanwhile, UMl Chairman Oli has made his stance clear saying that they would float their party’s opinion only after the ruling coalition partners made their positions clear on the issue.

The MCC agreement was signed by the Nepal government and US foreign assistance agency in 2017.

It should be noted that the then Finance Minister Dr. Yuvaraj Khatiwada had on July 2, 2019, registered the MCC at the Parliament Secretariat for discussion.

Meanwhile, on Monday, a Chinese official, Chen Chao, who is also the Deputy Minister of International Affairs under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in a video conversation with UML leader Shankar Pokhrel, urged the latter to “reconsider” the party’s position on MCC before endorsing it.