Kathmandu, July 26 -- Ending months of speculation, the Donald Trump administration has decided to give continuity to the Millennium Challenge Nepal Compact, a package of development projects that has been in the spotlight in Nepal for over a half decade.

In late April, the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a cost-cutting initiative of the Donald Trump administration and then led by billionaire Elon Musk, had decided to shut down the MCC, followed by the shuttering of USAID, another powerful US external aid agency working across the globe.

After two major US aid agencies were told to pack up, the State Department started reviewing foreign assistance projects and programmes undertaken by various aid agencies, including the M...