Wednesday, May 27, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
AN INTER PRESS SERVICE FEATURE
BINOD BHATTARAI
- NEPAL’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT RODE TO POWER ON A POPULIST ANTI-INDIAN CAMPAIGN LAST OCTOBER. NOW FACE- TO-FACE WITH THE ‘REALPOLITIK’ OF INDIA’S OVERWHELMING DOMINANCE, IT IS FINDING IT HARD TO KEEP PROMISES.
THE NEPAL COMMUNIST PARTY UNITED MARXIST-LENINIST (UML) PLEDGED TO RENEGOTIATE A 1950 FRIENDSHIP TREATY WITH INDIA WHICH IT SAYS IS UNEQUAL. IT ALSO SAID IT WOULD SCRAP AN AGREEMENT WITH INDIA ON A DAM IN WESTERN NEPAL AND INTRODUCE WORK PERMITS FOR INDIANS IN THE COUNTRY.
NEPAL’S DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, AND UML CHIEF, MADHAV KUMAR NEPAL VISITED NEW DELHI LAST MONTH TO SPEAK WITH INDIAN LEADERS ON THESE ISSUES. HE GOT A POLITE HEARING, BUT NO BREAKTHROUGHS.
MADHAV KUMAR NEPAL HAS HANDED THE BATON TO HIS BOSS, PRIME MINISTER AND VETERAN COMMUNIST MAN MOHAN ADHIKARY, WHO IS SCHEDULED TO VISIT INDIA NEXT MONTH. FOUR BILATERAL COMMITTEES OF OFFICIALS FROM THE TWO COUNTRIES ARE WORKING OUT DETAILS OF THE AGREEMENTS TO BE REACHED DURING THE VISIT.
LANDLOCKED NEPAL IS SANDWICHED BETWEEN INDIA AND CHINA. THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS SEPARATE NEPAL FROM CHINA IN THE NORTH, BUT WITH INDIA, NEPAL HAS A 900 KM OPEN BORDER.
MIGRANT WORKERS CROSS THE FRONTIER FREELY IN BOTH DIRECTIONS, BUT NEPAL SAYS THE PRESENCE OF LARGE NUMBERS OF INDIANS IN NEPAL TAKES AWAY JOBS FROM NEPALIS AND HAS A MUCH GREATER IMPACT THAN NEPALIS HAVE ON INDIA.
THE 1950 INDO-NEPAL TREATY STIPULATES THAT THE TWO COUNTRIES WILL GIVE EACH OTHER’S CITIZENS “THE SAME PRIVILEGES IN THE MATTER OF RESIDENCE AND OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY”.
NEPAL, WITH 20 MILLION PEOPLE, FEARS IT WILL BE SWAMPED BY INDIANS WHO NUMBER NEARLY 900 MILLION, IF THE TREATY IS NOT REVISED.
“CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE 1950 TREATY HAVE BECOME OBSOLETE. WE WOULD LIKE IT TO BE REVIEWED, UPDATED AND MADE RELEVANT TO EXISTING NEEDS,” SAYS MADHAV KUMAR NEPAL.
THE OTHER CLAUSE IN THE TREATY THAT NEPAL WANTS CHANGED IS THE REQUIREMENT TO INFORM AND CONSULT EACH OTHER IN THE EVENT OF “A THREAT TO THE SECURITY OF THE OTHER BY A FOREIGN AGGRESSOR”.
A LETTER EXCHANGED WITH THE TREATY ALSO STIPULATES THAT NEPAL WILL IMPORT ITS DEFENCE EQUIPMENT WITH THE “ASSISTANCE AND AGREEMENT” OF INDIA.
IN 1989, INDIA CLOSED ALL BORDER POINTS WITH NEPAL FOR [ e
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Sapana Shakya
- Nanthawan Chutakasut, a 41-year-old nurse at a public health centre in Thailand, has seen too many patients suffer and die of AIDS, including babies born to HIV-infected mothers.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Deborah Horan
- Palestinian businessman Said el-Mishal made millions of dollars in Qatar in petrochemicals, fertilizers and steel. Six months ago, he moved to Gaza to put his business head to work building the economy of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
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AN INTER PRESS SERVICE FEATURE
AKHILESH UPADHYAY
- THE TREES ARE SILHOUETTED IN SHADES OF GREYISH-YELLOW MIST AS THE SUN COMES UP AT THE EDGE OF THE JUNGLE.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Johanna Son
- Norma Pereyras found herself up against a brick wall of animosity five years ago, when she tried to create projects for women members who made up two-thirds of her cooperative in the southern Philippines.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Rajiv Tiwari
- Russian organisations for the promotion of sports and looking after the interests of the disabled or Afghan war veterans, are among the country’s largest importers of vodka, cigarettes and cars, the ‘Izvestia’ newspaper revealed Tuesday.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Xu Xiaoting
- To readers of the international press, the Chinese traveller is more often than not an illegal migrant who risked a perilous boat ride in search of a new life in distant shores.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Debra Percival
- European Union and Central American diplomats in Brussels are setting their sights on a “new lease of life” and a “qualitative leap” for cooperation between the EU and Central America.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Rajiv Tiwari
- Russian experts on China are convinced there will be no political or economic upheavals in China in the post-Deng Xiaoping period and predict a smooth takeover of power by chairman Jiang Zemin.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Johanna Son
- Mortal foes have become allies and ex- villains are making a comeback in the Philippine political arena as Filipinos prepare to mark the ninth year of the People Power revolt that was supposed to usher in a new political culture.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Kunda Dixit
- In an official visit to India this month, Nepal’s deputy prime minister who is also the general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leninist (UML) went on a well-publicised pilgrimage to a famous Hindu shrine.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Deborah Horan
- The Mount David Children’s Hospital that took in hundreds of Palestinian children has been closed because of a dispute between the U.S. charity which ran the operation and Palestinian authorities.
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AN INTER PRESS SERVICE FEATURE
ASHWINI DESSAI
- TEN YEARS AFTER THE WORLD’S WORST INDUSTRIAL DISASTER AT A UNION CARBIDE PESTICIDE PLANT IN BHOPAL, ANOTHER U.S.-BASED TRANSNATIONAL COMPANY IS POISED TO SET UP A NYLON FACTORY HERE WITH A CONTRACT THAT WILL ABSOLVE THE FIRM FROM RESPONSIBILITY FOR SIMILAR MISHAPS.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Ron Corben
- Sheltered only by plastic covers and blankets, a sense of loss and fear hang over the thousands of Burmese who fled mortar attacks by Rangoon troops, and are now seeking refuge in Thailand.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Senthil Ratnasabapathy
- Increased contact between South American and eastern European drug groups is resulting in an increased supply of cocaine both in the western and the eastern parts of Europe, according to drug enforcement officials in the region.
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An Inter Press Service Feature
Johanna Son
- The Philippine government has introduced new rules aimed at protecting millions of Filipino overseas workers from abuse, but entertainers seeking jobs in Japan are not cheering.
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