Contrary to Artha Beed's 'Building bridges' (#153) I was under the impression that most Sino-Indian trade routed through Nepal was of the illegal variety. Also, re-routing Middle East trade that used to go through Shanghai and Hong Kong through Sikkim doesn't make sense to me. But it would decrease the smuggling of Chinese goods to India via Nepal. But this is to be expected with economic liberalisation and falling trade barriers. A conduit country anywhere is bound to lose its primacy. As for Nepal playing India and China against each other. I believe only King Mahendra was successful to some extent in doing it and that too he used to throttle democracy. Times have changed. It is in Nepals best interest to have strong political and economic ties with both countries. Our esteemed politicians fall over each other to be servile to the powers that be. Nepal is a remittance economy now, no more an agricultural economy. And does the Beed seriously think Nepal is in a position to comply with the WTO regime? Won't it kill whatever little industry we have left?

Rabin Koirala, email