Nepal and the great power rivalry between China and India

In the second decade of the 21st century, Nepal remains a poor land-locked country with limited economic development. With the rise of the economic powerhouses of China and India from the 1990s, Nepal, because of its strategic location between these two regional powers, has become the site of their growing rivalry. While Nepal has been seen by New Delhi as an avenue of Indian influence, trade and investment, China since the end of the Maoist insurgency and the establishment of a republican government in Kathmandu, has provided aid and assistance to Nepal in the building of roads and hydro-electric infrastructure. Nepal faces the dilemma of balancing and benefitting from the increasing rivalry between China and India within its borders.