By Ankit Panda
Nepal’s prime minister, Khadga Prasad Oli, may be taking the country away from India and toward China.
Nepal’s recently elected prime minister, Khadga Prasad Oli, has stirred the pot in the country’s increasing strained bilateral relationship with India by opting to visit China for his first state visit. Nepali prime ministers have traditionally visited India on their first state visit abroad, in a nod to historically close ties between the two South Asian neighbors. (One notable recent exception was Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepal’s 33rd prime minister and chairman of the country’s major Maoist party, who chose to visit Beijing before New Delhi.)
Confirmation of Oli’s trip to China in early 2016 comes shortly after the Nepali government acquiesced to demands by ethnic Madhesi, Tharu, and other protesters for a range of reforms to the country’s recently promulgated constitution. Nepal has been gripped by a national crisis stemming from widespread perceptions that the country’s new constitution purposefully marginalizes the interests of historically disadvantaged groups.
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