Kathmandu: The approaching friendly visit of the Chinese Prime Minister Jzu Rongzhi beginning early next week is taking shape at a time when Nepal’s internal politics is under tremendous strain.

The Chinese dignitary’s decision to include Nepal in his tour of some of the Asian countries this round becomes also very much significant in the sense that Premier Rongzhi is not visiting neighboring India for reasons unknown to Kathmandu intellectuals.

The visit of the Chinese Premier comes close on the heels of a short trip of the Russian Federation foreign minister, Mr.Igor Ivanov, to Delhi wherein during his stay there he said assessing President Putin’s India visit accomplished last year that (sic): ” during that visit in October 2000, Russia and India signed a solid package of documents on cooperation in very diverse fields, 18 in all, including the fundamental document for bilateral relations-the declaration on strategic partnership between our countries”.

Immediately after RF minister’s visit, India managed a sort of huge military exercise called “complete victory” at the border close to neighboring Pakistan.

This military exercise, say Nepali intellectuals, could be an Indian message to Pakistan in particular and China in general with whom the former not enjoys that much of cordial relations.

The Indian military exercise is also timed with Premier Rongzhi’s Asian trip, which makes it more meaningful, and worth pondering over. The first ever-biggest military show of strength conducted by India might have sent chilling waves in the minds of the leaders of the smaller nations in South Asia undoubtedly. With two of the South Asian neighbors of the SAARC arrangement already becoming nuclear forces the smaller nations in the vicinity are forced to think over a separate formulae on how to minimize the security risks or threats collectively.

On the other hand, this visit is also coming close when the United States is busy in bagging support from prominent nations in favor of its new proposal on Nuclear Missile Defence or otherwise the NMD. Most interestingly, an India that every time rejected summarily such American proposals at time of the Cold War era has hinted the US of its support to the schemes of NMD matters.

It should be noted here that opposition to the new US move comes from China and unbelievably from America’s time tested European allies. Vocal among the European nations against the NMD issue is Germany notably.

So far as Russian Federation is concerned, the foreign minister in Delhi did not disclose as to how it views the NMD. He however, said that the ABM treaty is the basis for maintaining and strengthening international security and that what President Bush has announced is of a political nature. Any conclusion on that could be made only after further consultations especially on the technical aspects”‘.

To put it mildly, Russian Federation opposes the US move, which sidelines the ABM treaty.

To boot, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Henry Shelton is expected to visit India shortly possibly before the end of this month. Some experts also predict the initiation of a defense cooperation between India and United States.

How Premier Rongzhi has taken up the US new initiative would perhaps be clear when he meets the Nepali press during his stay here. It would also be important to read China’s mood in the emerging US-India axis so far as the NMD is concerned. The fact is that there is already the existence of India-RF axis. India, undoubtedly, heavily relies on the RF for the supply of arms.

Be that as it may, what is for sure is that China of late has started taking “greater interest” in Nepal perhaps for strategic reasons.

The Nepalese side hopes that this trip would immensely benefit Nepal’s lame-duck tourism industry as China is all set to declare Nepal a “tourist destination”. Apart from these, the visit is expected to give a real boost to the Trade and commerce of the country.

Informed sources say that China might exhibit its displeasure over the 14 th Karmapa sneaking to India late last year using Nepali territory.

Only recently, Karmapa divulged that he spent a night in Nagarkot, a valley close to the Nepali capital prior to fleeing to India-his final destination.