India 'lifts' Nepal arms embargo

Last Updated: Sunday, 24 April, 2005, 11:38 GMT 12:38 UK

India has decided "in principle" to resume military supplies to Nepal.

King Gyanendra has promised in return that democracy will soon be restored to Nepal, which he took under his absolute control at the beginning of February.

Delhi imposed an arms embargo soon after the Nepalese king dismissed the elected multi-party government.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met the king for the first time since the widely condemned royal takeover, at an Asian African summit in Indonesia.

Unequivocal manner
The BBC's Sanjeev Srivastava in India says that Delhi's assurance about resuming military supplies to Nepal has not come as a surprise to diplomatic observers.

Amnesty says 3,000 political prisoners have been held in Nepal
He says India was looking for an opportunity to make up with the king of Nepal, who was reported to be "quite angry" by the strong and unequivocal manner in which Delhi had condemned the royal takeover.

Western powers like the US and the UK joined India in condemning the king's actions, but both Beijing and Islamabad were much less harsh.

Although India's relations with China and Pakistan have improved significantly in the last couple of years, Delhi still does not want their influence to increase in Nepal, our correspondent says.

Top level contacts
A report in the Hindu newspaper quotes an unnamed Indian foreign ministry official as saying that a consignment of arms would be delivered to Nepal "very soon".

Another newspaper, The Hindustan Times, quoted the king telling reporters on the sidelines of the Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta that military supplies from India would resume.

"We have agreed on certain things and we have got assurances that they (military supplies) will continue," the king is reported as saying.

The king has said the emergency is necessary to fight the Maoists

The 57-year-old monarch said sacking the government and imposing the emergency were necessary to protect democracy from the grave risk posed by the Maoist rebels against the monarchy.

Asked when he would lift the emergency, the king said his government had already called for municipal elections and the lifitng of the emergency would take place "in due course".

The BBC's Nagendar Sharma in Bandung says that Asian countries at the two-day summit kept aside their bilateral differences and concentrated on collective issues.

The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf and Mr Singh praised each other while addressing the summit. Sphere: Related Content