China and its growing presence and influence with the Oli (right) administration is being watched very closely by India. (Photo: Reuters)

Even as Nepal has pulled out of the military exercise being hosted by India in Pune under the banner of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical & Economic Cooperation) and decided to go ahead with a bilateral exercise with China, India has expressed "understanding" over the decision.

Indian government sources explained to India Today that BIMSTEC is a forum that works on "consensus" and proposals cannot be "imposed" on any member country. There are around 14 broad areas of cooperation under the forum and counter-terrorism is one of them where India decided to take the lead. "This is part of a multilateral exercise where everything is consensus-driven, there can be no imposition", said the official.

The proposal made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not part of the BIMSTEC declaration, therefore, participation was not mandatory. Elucidating a sense of understanding the official said, "If a certain country is not fully participating then we should leave it to the comfort of that country."

Speaking exclusively to India Today, Nepal Army's spokesperson Brigadier General Gokul Bhandaree said that India should not be concerned with the bilateral military exercises with China.

"This is an exercise that will take place on September 17-28 in Chengdu of China and the focus of the exercise will be counter-terrorism. The Sagarmatha Friendship-2 will be held in China. The first exercise was held in Nepal and the second version will be in China. We have similar military exercise with India called SuryaKiran and we have had 13 exercise between India and Nepal", he said.

To the question of why Nepal decided not to join the exercise, Bhandaree said that Nepal will be represented by three observers. "It was the government's decision not to participate. We have sent three persons as observers. They are in Maharashtra now. At present, the government has decided not to send contingent", he said.

While Indian sources say that they are looking at the "big picture", China and its growing presence and influence with the Oli administration is being watched very closely.

Senior journalist Yubaraj Ghimire says that the trouble took root during the 2016 blockade but has many more layers. "The India-Nepal trust deficit after blockade continues. And beginning with the fall of the monarchy, the resultant chaos and prolonged transition have brought India's rival China in a big way in Nepal", he said.

Sources say that the ruling party in Nepal, the Nepal Communist Party, is divided on the BIMSTEC military exercise, with many feeling that such a multilateral exercise will be seen as the formation of a military block. This will go against Nepal's history of not belonging to any such block.

But the former Nepalese envoy to India, Deep Kumar Upadhayay differed, terming the decision as "immature". He said, "Now the government in Nepal is stable and strong but their political and diplomatic approach is very immature." He stressed that the issue was not supposed to be "sensitive" but was made "political" by design.

India has been trying to project BIMSTEC as an alternative to SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) grouping in order to keep Pakistan out and counter China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which all the BIMSTEC nations are partners of.

For now, it's not just Nepal, even Thailand has sent observers and is not participating in the exercise.

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