Kathmandu: USAID Administrator Samantha Power has said that she had a conversation with Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Wednesday. “Administrator Power and Prime Minister Dahal discussed the importance of the longstanding U.S-Nepal partnership and the shared commitment to advance democratic gains and progress, improve prosperity and resilience for the Nepali people, strengthen anti-corruption efforts, and advance efforts focused on open and transparent government,” reads the statement attributed to Spokesperson Jessica Jennings. “Administrator Power also offered condolences for the recent passing of First Lady Sita Dahal.”
Incidentally, this comes at a time when Richard Nephew, the Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption of the US Department of State, is in Nepal visit. “We’ll be meeting with Government officials and civil society representatives to discuss Nepal’s progress on its Summit for Democracy anti-corruption commitments,” the US ambassador to Nepal Dean R Thompson wrote about Nephew’s Nepal visit earlier on Thursday.
During her Nepal trip in February, 2023 Power had spoken of Prime Minister Dahal in an appreciative tone and said that Nepali PM is committed to further strengthening Nepal’s democracy by completing the peace process. “He takes very special pride in how much Nepali people have overcome in strengthening the peace since the civil war came to an end. Making peace always looks easy in retrospect but it’s very hard if you are involved in the process,” she had said.
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