Washington, March 22: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has described India as the United States' closest international partner in working on affairs in Nepal.
The United States has very close cooperation with New Delhi,
she told a panel of the House of Representatives Appropriations
Committee yesterday.
In reply to a question, rice said current US ambassador to Nepal
Jim Moriarty is a very capable ambassador and I think has worked
with the Nepalese through an extremely difficult period in which
we were trying to get the government to be more responsive to
peace -- the possibilities of a peace agreement.
Ambassador Moriarty had worked for Rice when she was National
Security Advisor to President before taking over as the
Secretary of State.
Referring to the situation in Nepal, Rice said, I think there
is a little concern now that any peace agreement makes certain that
there is a demobilisation or a disarmament of Maoist rebels, so
that is the peace that is being worked through. But the situation
is still, I would say, somewhat tenuous there, though there are
possibilities.
Earlier a law maker had also raised the plight of the Bhutanese
refugees in Nepal.
Rice in response said, they are covered, I believe, under our
general refugee policy. But she promised to provide an update on
the refugee situation.
I recognise the problem of the Bhutanese not being able to go
back and obviously not wanting to stay in a refugee camp, but I
will get an update for you (the member who asked the question)
on where we are on that issue, Rice said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, March 22, 2007, 00:00