Nepal has taken a threat to a $ 500 million US grant. It may be regretted now.

Nepal, the small Himalayan state adjacent to China, was negotiating with Beijing because of a major injection to finance infrastructure when the United States intervened with a profitable offer.

For five years, the US government will give the country $ 500 million of grants to expand its electricity network and improve its roads – a huge amount in a country where Annual annual income About 1400 dollars.

The American challenge in the Chinese influence in its area in its area in Beijing. But Nepal, after five years of division discussion, advanced and accepted the offer, and coincided with it in 2022 after obtaining it for $ 200 million.

Now, the project has been suspected with the freezing of the Trump administration on external aid. The leaders of the Nepalese who stood with the United States, and support the deal even with their description of opponents with dolls and traitors, are wondering whether they had made a terrible mistake in putting their faith in America.

“This is shocking,” said Rajndra Bagin, a deputy from the ruling Nepalese Congress Party, who enthusiastically argued for the American project. “They facilitate our neighboring countries, especially the Chinese, who enjoy themselves. They will come to our office and say,” see, so America behaves. “

It is not clear whether China has provided any direct initiatives to Nepal, where the United States is declining. But Beijing was delivered by President Trump for foreign aid and other moves that isolated the allies and partners of the United States. Some of them, such as India, may find it difficult to challenge the increasing confirmation in China in Asia without supporting the United States, especially its financial muscles.

Nepal’s infrastructure grant was provided through Millennium Challenge CompanyAgency established by the American conference in 2004 during the George W. Bush administration. An annual budget is only about one billion dollars, but it provides funding for programs around the world, including those that aim to reduce the influence of China in Asia and Africa.

The largest part of the Nepal grant was supposed to be used to build a transfer line of approximately 200 miles that connect its power network to India, which helps the country generate revenues by selling the surplus of electricity to its giant neighbor. The money will also help Nepal to maintain about 200 miles of roads, which helps to stick to a nation divided by its harsh terrain.

Some early small contracts were granted, and work on parts of the project, including sub -stations, began. But on Tuesday, after he remained in dark for weeks, Nepal announced that the United States had told her that the program financing had been suspended for at least 90 days.

Millennium Challenge plans to apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to obtain exemptions to maintain eight large -scale programs, including those in Nepal, on the right track, according to an American official, who occurs on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

We may stop our grants of grants that may impose serious difficulties on the receiving countries. If they are forced to break the contracts, their important debts may actually grow. In the case of Nepal, he can bear responsibility if he does not abide by its approval with India to transfer electricity, the American official said.

Cemant Dahal, a lawyer who was part of the grant ratification process, said that large electrical energy projects in Nepal will also be affected if the transport line is not completed.

Nepal had to overcome China’s strong influence to distribute the agreement with the United States in 2017, during the first administration of Mr. Trump.

The Mountain Nation, with a long history of communist policy, has some affiliation with China. Critics of the deal warned that this means the surrender of sovereignty to the United States and struck fears of the arrival of American forces one day.

China has exaggerated doubts. “Is it a gift or a Bandora box?” The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chuning, said the discussion was playing in Nepal. “I am afraid that it will turn like the Nepalese saying: It looks good, but you will find that the meat is difficult to chew.”

The supporters of the deal fought, saying they would defend it “in Parliament and in the streets.” They indicated that it was a grant from a democratic state and had no chains that often come with Chinese loans, such as having to use Chinese contractors, who set up some of the poorest borrowers.

Nepal will soon face this problem in itself: it is on the hook of an international airport, at a largely inflated price, without paying the necessary passengers numbers. 200 million dollars China I came to build it. This loan came at the same time that the Americans intervened with their granting.

“It was difficult to be fraught with,” said Gagan Thaba, a member of Parliament, about the approval of the American grant. “There were many geopolitical complications.”

“Based on the relations between Nepal and the United States, and to the tendencies,” based on the relations of Nepal and the United States, and for the benefit of the Nepalese people, “said Mr. Thaba.