Kathmandu, May 15 -- A visiting senior US State Department official said on Tuesday that the Indo-Pacific Strategy is not against any country and that the United States is not asking Nepal to be "for" or "against" it.

At a time when the Nepal government is refuting that Nepal is not part of the larger American strategy, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia David J Ranz, said that the Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC) where the US has put $500 million in grant to Nepal for some infrastructure projects, is very much part of the strategy.

Nepal's role in the Indo-Pacific Strategy became a hot issue in Kathmandu after Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali's visit to the United States in December last year. It had also tr...