Gopal Khanal

Despite losing vote of confidence in the House of Representative (HoR), CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli is still the Prime Minister because his opponents couldn't muster the support of majority lawmakers to form an alternative government. In the whole game of power politics, Oli has emerged as victorious.
An interesting turn of events has unfolded here. Those, who had been seeking Prime Minister Oli’s resignation a little while ago, have happily dodged the issue and posed another question: Where are vaccines to save the people from the coronavirus disease? Now, they are trying to create a narrative that Prime Minister Oli completely failed in containing the pandemic. They have claimed Oli was unable to garner support from neighbours and international community to stem the virus. However, the government’s persistent efforts and subsequent response from the neighbours and other friendly countries have proved them wrong. Here are the instances.

Nepal's appeal
On May 4, Prime Minister Oli appealed to the international community to help Nepal in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. "Since we are living in an interconnected and interlinked world, a pandemic like this spares no one and no one is safe. I would like to request our neighbours, friendly countries and international organisations to help us with vaccines, diagnostic equipment and kits, oxygen therapy, critical care medicines and critical care furniture to support our ongoing efforts to combat the pandemic," the PM said in an address to the nation.
He had spoken in Nepali, but English version of the speech was also distributed to communicate with the diplomatic community. Earlier, Prime Minister Oli had also requested neighbours and global community to assist Nepal in fighting the pandemic. He informed that Nepali authorities have been doing everything in their capacity to contain the rapid rise of virus cases.
Similarly, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on May 15 held a virtual meeting with the ambassadors of Nepali diplomatic missions abroad in this regard. While informing the ambassadors about the most recent initiatives taken so far against the pandemic, Minister Gyawali received updates from the respective ambassadors on their efforts made for the mobilisation of international cooperation of vaccines, oxygen and others health-related supplies.
He instructed the concerned embassies to double their efforts to explore further avenues of support at the bilateral and multilateral levels as well as through philanthropic organisations, private sector and Nepali diasporas. As of now, Nepali ambassador to Oman, Sharmila Parajuli has shown her diplomatic efficacy. Earlier this, Minister Gyawali had also called upon the neighbours and friendly countries to support the country in the time of hardship.
Prime Minister Oli and Foreign Affairs Minister Gyawali have been urging India, China and other friendly countries to support Nepal to fight against the pandemic. All should understand that Nepali government has not maintained silence; it has been doing what can be done in the best possible manner.
In response, India, China and other countries have expressed their commitment to providing much-needed medical support to Nepal. In fact, Nepal has been receiving support from them. This is not the situation of desperation. Since the donor countries, which are either themselves facing the terrible upsurge of virus or equally supporting other countries too, the prompt and sufficient help couldn't be materialised. Let's evaluate and appreciate the support of neighbours and global community extended to Nepal so far.

International support
India itself has been urging the USA and Russia to help her to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that has been taking the lives of people in record number each passing day. Of late, there are the reports that the rate of infection cases have slowed down. Despite its painful situation with lack of enough medical resources, India has been supporting Nepal. We should not forget that India had significantly provided help to Nepal during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Indian ambassador to Nepal Vinaya Mohan Kwatra has been very supportive to Nepal.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin on May 7 said that China will continue to do its best to provide support to Nepal in the fight against pandemic. As per the commitment, China has donated 20,000 oxygen cylinders to Nepal, which have been transported to Kathmandu.
Chinese ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi on May 11 handed over the other additional Chinese medical supplies to Nepal. These supplies donated by China had arrived in Kathmandu on May 9 and 10. While handing over the medical supplies, ambassador Hou said that since the pandemic outbreak, China and Nepal have firmly been standing together and helping each other with joint pandemic prevention and control responses.
Similarly, the US government on April 30 announced additional $8.5 million in emergency response funding to combat the virus disease in Nepal. The additional assistance is helping intensify COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and case investigation, treatment, infection prevention and control, border control and other works at the federal, provincial and municipal level. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the US has stood with the people and government of Nepal, stated the US government.
US President Joe Biden announced the US being the largest donor to COVAX has committed $ 2 billion to the programme, with another $2 billion to come. Under this, Nepal was among the first in Asia to receive the COVAX donation. According the US embassy, the total support of the US to fight against the pandemic is $ 39.9 million. The European Union (EU) has also been supporting Nepal. The EU has mobilised an initial Euro 2 million (NPR 282 million) in humanitarian funding, which has been supporting monitoring of all home isolated cases through tele-health, tele-medicine services and rapid referral to hospitals.
These are some instances of support Nepal has received. All the countries, to which Nepal has been seeking assistance, have responded positively and made commitment to providing aid to combat the pandemic. Prime Minister Oli can further appeal to the donor countries and neighbours and again he would be responded positively.

(Khanal is consulting editor at Gorkhapatra Corporation. khanalbro@gmail.com)