Amid SPP confusion, home minister makes a gaffe saying pullout letter sent to

Confusion does not seem to end over the United States government’s State Partnership Program even a week after the Nepal government decided not to move ahead on it.

On Monday, Home Minister Khand created further confusion.

While speaking at the National Assembly on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also the defence minister, Khand said the Nepal government decided on June 20 not to move ahead on the SPP and that a letter to this effect has been already written [to the United States] through the Foreign Ministry.

Some sections of the media were quick to pick up the piece of information, as it came from the home minister, and reported that Nepal has written to the US seeking an end to its participation in the SPP.

“Whether Nepal is part of the State Partnership Program for the exchange and assistance between the Nepali and US Armies has been the subject of a nationwide debate and has been seriously debated in the House as well,” said Khand. “The Council of Ministers has already decided that Nepal won’t move ahead on the State Partnership Program. We have sent the decision [to the US] through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Nepal’s participation in the SPP has become a topic of hot debate in Nepal, with parties from the opposition as well as ruling coalition demanding that the government must terminate its association with the SPP.

That Nepal is part of the SPP became clear only recently after the US embassy in Kathmandu said that Nepal’s application was accepted in 2019 following two requests in 2015 and 2017.

Talking to the Post after the National Assembly meeting, Khand clarified that he only mentioned that the decision taken by the Cabinet has been forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“I have not said more than that,” he said. “The decision taken by the Cabinet has been forwarded to the Foreign Ministry. Now it is up to the Foreign Ministry to take further action as per the government decision.”

As the Post reported last week, a letter regarding the Cabinet decision was dispatched to the Foreign Ministry only on Thursday.

The copy of the letter from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, which is seen by the Post, says “as per the Work Procedure Regulation-2064 BS and its Section 29, the Cabinet decision on not to move ahead on the United States of America’s State Partnership Program is forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

The letter dated June 23 is undersigned by Chief Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi and is addressed to Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Poudyal.

Despite receiving the letter regarding the Cabinet decision of June 20 to stall the SPP process, the Foreign Ministry, however, has not taken any step yet.

Though government officials have claimed that Nepal has never been part of the SPP, an Indo-Pacific Strategy Report published in February 2019 mentioned Nepal as a new entrant.

There, however, had been no controversy over it until some sections of the media two weeks ago published a document calling it a draft agreement between the Nepal Army and the Utah National Guard of the United States.

The US embassy in Kathmandu reacted, dubbing the document…