Nepal and China go for reviving old Silk Road from Lhasa to Kathmandu as part of Eurasian transport corridor
By Ajul Sharpa for Eurasian News Desk
Kathmandu, Nepal: Taking a practical step, China has signed a project with Nepal to revive old Silk Road as part of extending Silk Road Economic Belt to South Asia. This project will link Nepal to Eurasian transport corridor that is being extended by China every passing year having Russia as its partner for trans-border initiative.
After the development it is clear that china does not want to use Pakistan and Afghanistan for any future trade corridor because both countries were part of US backed New Silk Road concept connecting South Asia to Europe via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan. This New Silk Road of US-backed think tanks has no connection with Iran also. China is not ready to plan any future trade via Afghanistan believing that Afghanistan will never be a normal country.
It may be mentioned that China and Nepal signed a four-point document endorsing the Silk Road Economic Belt. This project document was signed in Beijing during a meeting of the Nepal-China Inter-governmental Business and Investment Coordination.
India media reports that China has offered Beijing-Kathmandu-New Delhi trilateral development partnership as a confidence building step because Nepal is located between China and India so China does not want tio imbalance Nepali relations with India thereby offering India to join this networking through connecting India city of Patna with this new networking.
Eurasian transport corridor project will eventually connect Asia with Europe along a land corridor on same route that was old Silk Road. China has already completed a big portion of Expressway linking China to Central Asia and consequently reaching Russia. Therefore China will work as hub of this transport link while Russia will be Gateway to Europe. Kathmandu will be linked to Patna thereby this old Silk Road networking will directly connects India with future flow of cargo to Europe via China.
Experts believe that this mixture of old Silk Road and New Silk Road (Chinese Expressway connecting to Central Asia and further more to Russia) will become a transportation channel which would connect East Asia, West Asia and South Asia with Central Asia through China and then to Europe through Russia.
It may be mentioned that China wants to connect with Nepal and South Asia through an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet railway and this rail line from Lhasa has already been extended to Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city. The Chinese plan to build two lines from Shigatse as one would lead to Kerung, the nearest Chinese town from Nepal, from where it would be extended to Rasuwagadhi in Nepal while the other line would head to Yadong on the India-Bhutan border.
Nepal is landlocked country and once a rail connection with China is established, Nepalese goods can be transited to the international markets through the Eurasian transportation network benefiting Nepal economy strongly.
