China will allow landlocked Nepal to use its ports for trading goods with third countries, a senior official in Kathmandu said on Wednesday, potentially ending India’s decades-long monopoly inside the impoverished country’s trading routes.A prolonged blockade of its border crossings with India last year by protesters demanding changes to an alternative constitution left Nepal desperately short of fuel and goods, throwing into sharp relief its dependence on routes into its southern neighbor. Nepal’s Prime Minister K. P. Oli signed an agreement with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang during a visit to Beijing this week to make Nepalese traders access to land routes and ports in China, commerce ministry official Rabi Shankar Sainju said.”This is a historic agreement for Nepal,” Sainju said. “This cannot be an alternative to the Indian port but it's an additional route to boost our trade.” The routes and ports that Nepal, sandwiched between China and India, can use should be decided by officials from Kathmandu and Beijing soon, he said. China is vying to increase its influence in Nepal, challenging India’s long-held position even though the dominant outside power.Beijing this week also agreed to consider building a railway into Nepal, supply petroleum products and to start a feasibility study for a free trade agreement.Nepal, still trying to recover from two devastating earthquakes last year, adopted its first post-monarchy constitution in September hoping this may usher in peace and stability after years of conflict.But protesters blocked trucks coming in from India, leading to acute shortages. Nepal blamed New Delhi for siding with the protesters, a charge India denied. -
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