The Belt and Road Initiative in Nepal: Potential impacts and implications

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative is emerging as a global phenomenon with a potential of bearing on almost all nations on Earth in different ways. In this context, this article, generally, is an attempt to demonstrate that impacts and implications of the BRI in Nepal will be governed by important national (Chinese) and international factors. Specifically, it argues that factors that have high developmental potential for Nepal include China's persistent rise and concomitant creation of the multipolar world, China's upholding of its international polices and the BRI principles, reproduction of the BRI experiences of other countries in Nepal, China's continuous pursuit of its socialism-aspiring path of development, its potential embarkment on a predominantly socialist path in the future. It argues that China’s future embarkment on a predominantly capitalist path can have ambivalent impacts ranging from highly appropriative to highly supportive. Likewise, the US–China conflict can also have ambivalent impacts ranging from boosting of Nepal’s negotiating power between the two powers to compromising of Nepal’s sovereignty and stability. The US–China conflict can also push China to treat Nepal as strategically highly important and, therefore, as a favored nation, pouring massive investments. It shows that the Chinese investment will enhance Nepal’s status vis-a-vis the US, the EU and India by cutting down its age-long dependencies on them; and will be conducive to the geographically-distributed development and capital accumulation.