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Since the parliamentary endorsement of the MCC compact, China has stepped up its engagements with Nepali politicians. Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi has started reaching out to politicians, and as of this writing had met CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Speaker Agni Sapkota.

Her leg-work comes ahead of the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s impending Nepal visit at March-end, in what will be the first high-level visit from China since the formation of the Deuba government in July 2021. The Chinese foreign minister’s visit is being seen meaningfully as it will come hot on the heels of the compact’s endorsement—something that China did not want (See story here).

Ruling Nepali Congress spokesperson and former foreign minister Prakash Sharan Mahat says Nepal’s message to Wang on the compact will be simple: it is a purely development project and it will not create any problem in Nepal’s relation with China.

Following the compact’s endorsement, China is expected to push its pending BRI projects in Nepal. Mahat says the government is also ready to implement the BRI projects that are beneficial for Nepal. “Under the BRI, we expect more grant and nominal interests on loans,” says Mahat.

In a Feb 7 press conference, Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka had said there were some pending issues with China. Perhaps he was referring to the tightening of border points and Nepali students enrolled in Chinese universities being stranded in their own country due to China’s strict Covid-19 protocols.

Foreign policy analyst Milan Tuladhar who also served as foreign policy advisor to former Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal says it is inappropriate to link Wang’s visit to the compact. “There are many pending bilateral issues like the long delay in cross-border railway, problems at border points and implementation of past agreements,” he says. Not everything, he adds, needs to be related to the MCC compact. 

Russia could be planning a chemical or biological weapon attack in Ukraine - and "we should all be on the lookout", the White House has said, BBC reported.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said Russia's claims about US biological weapon labs, and chemical weapon development in Ukraine, were preposterous.

She called the false claims an "obvious ploy" to try to justify further premeditated, unprovoked attacks.

It comes after Western officials shared similar concerns about fresh attacks.

They said they were "very concerned" about the risk the war could escalate, and particularly the possibility of Russia using non-conventional weapons. 

This most likely refers to chemical weapons although the term also covers tactical (small-scale) nuclear weapons, biological weapons and dirty bombs, according to BBC.

"We've got good reason to be concerned," said one Western official.

They said this was partly because of what had been seen in other places where Russia has been engaged - notably Syria where chemical weapons were used by its allies.

Ms Psaki said: "We should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them - it's a clear pattern."

Earlier on Wednesday, the UK Ministry of Defence said in a tweet that Russia had used thermobaric rockets in Ukraine. These rockets are also known as vacuum bombs because they suck in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion.

This makes them more devastating than conventional explosives of a similar size, and can have a terrible impact on people caught in their blast radius, BBC reported.

The fears around chemical weapon use were borne from Russian claims potentially "setting the scene" for some kind of "false flag" claim, Western officials said.

In a tweet, the Russian Embassy referred to claims that "recently found documents" showed components of biological weapons were made in Ukrainian laboratories - with funding from the US Department of Defense. 

The US dismissed the claims, saying it was the "kind of disinformation operation we've seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries".

Russian officials and media have also claimed in recent days that Ukraine was planning to build a so-called dirty bomb - which disperses radioactive material.

Meanwhile Russia's foreign minister has claimed Ukraine had been seeking nuclear weapons, according to BBC.

Some believe Moscow is pushing these claims to come up with a justification for its own public about why it invaded Ukraine. But Western officials also fear they could be used as the basis for a "false flag" event.

A Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital Wednesday in the besieged port city of Mariupol amid growing warnings from the West that Moscow’s invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn. Ukrainian officials said the attack wounded at least 17 people, Associated Press reported.

The ground shook more than a mile away when the Mariupol complex was hit by a series of blasts that blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building. Police and soldiers rushed to the scene to evacuate victims, carrying out a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher as light snow drifted down on burning and mangled cars and trees shattered by the blast.

Another woman wailed as she clutched her child. In the courtyard, a blast crater extended at least two stories deep.

“Today Russia committed a huge crime,” said Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the ruins. “It is a war crime without any justification.”

In Zhytomyr, a city of 260,000 to the west of Kyiv, bombs fell on two hospitals, one of them a children’s hospital, Mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn said on Facebook. He said the number of casualties was still being determined. His report could not be independently confirmed, according to the Associated Press.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Mariupol strike trapped children and others under the rubble.

“A children’s hospital. A maternity hospital. How did they threaten the Russian Federation?” Zelenskyy asked in his nightly video address, switching to Russian to express his horror at the airstrike. “What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?”

He urged the West to impose even tougher sanctions, so Russia “no longer has any possibility to continue this genocide.”

Video shared by Zelenskyy showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal, Associated Press reported.

“There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenseless,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be held “to account for his terrible crimes.”

The World Health Organization said it has confirmed 18 attacks on health facilities and ambulances since the fighting began, killing 10 people. It was not clear if that number included the assault on the maternity hospital.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken condemned Russia’s “unconscionable attacks” in a call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, that also covered diplomatic attempts to roll back the invasion, the State Department said.

Two weeks into Russia’s assault on Ukraine, its military is struggling more than expected, but Putin’s invading force of more than 150,000 troops retains possibly insurmountable advantages in firepower as it bears down on key cities, according to the Associated Press.

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said India and Nepal will soon be connected through two rail links. 

Speaking at an inaugural session of the training module on India’s neighborhood organized by Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, the Indian foreign secretary stated that globalization begins with neighborhood and it is a neighborhood that comes first and foremost amongst all Indian foreign policy priorities. 

“The Neighborhood First Policy, at the instance of the Prime Minister, accords the highest priority to our relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka,” says Shringla. 

He said that India maintains excellent political relations with neighboring countries.  You might recall that South Asian leaders were invited when the present government was sworn in for the first time in 2014. Leaders of BIMSTEC countries, which include several of our neighbors on the Bay of Bengal littoral, were invited when the government was sworn in for the second time in 2019, he said. 

He further stated that neighborhood policy also attaches strong economic dimensions and creates a geographic space with neighbors. “We believe that economic good is not just good in itself. It will also create win-win propositions for the region that will address any impediments that we confront.” 

He said the second area of focus of India’s neighborhood policy in the energy sector. Stating that the Indian grid is connected to Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh through high-capacity connections, the Indian foreign secretary said that the trans-national movement of electricity in the neighborhood is a reality.

He said healthcare and education are two important areas in which India is working closely with its partners in the neighborhood. Stating that India has emerged as the educational hub of this region, tens of thousands of students from neighboring countries are enrolled in Indian institutions.