KATHMANDU (The Kathmandu Post/ANN) - Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who returned from a four-day state visit to India on Sunday, said that bilateral ties with China would not be affected by the agreements he had reached with New Delhi.

“We have maintained balanced relations with both our neighbours,” he told reporters at the Tribhuvan International Airport, claiming that his India visit was “highly successful and fruitful”.

Stating that Nepal’s partnership with India would not affect the relations with Beijing, Dahal said that his visit had taken the ties with India to a new level.

The dynamics of Nepal’s relations with India and China are different, the PM said. “The characteristics of our relations with India and China are different. Relations with one side will not affect the other,” Dahal responded to the queries of journalists. The joint communiqué issued during his visit would not affect Nepal’s ties with China.

The PM also defended some of the points of the joint communiqué. Referring to Point 11 of the joint communiqué that says both the countries hold similar views on major international issues, Dahal said it meant Nepal’s support for India’s candidacy for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. “Nepal and India will have similar positions in international forums in agreed matters. This is not a new thing.”

The PM said Nepal had been backing India’s bid for a UNSC seat since 2004. He added that the aim of his visit was to create an environment for sub-regional cooperation.

Some experts on international relations and political leaders have opposed the clause as it undermined Nepal’s independent handling of its foreign policy.

“The way the joint communiqué was issued and its contents have made us hang our heads in shame,” said former prime minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli.

On the inclusion of the constitutional concern in the joint communiqué, Dahal defended that the whole world knew about the need to implement the statute by bringing all the dissatisfied factions on board.