Was in Nepal about 3 years ago. Had read they are friendly towards India. I talked to a few people.
They were friendly. But one of them pointed out that Modi had blocked rice exports to Nepal. I didn’t know about that issue and kept quite. Seems like they reply on open lines from India and any breach in the trust of that line remaining open is not good for India.
Then we talked about a local school the Chinese had built. He was all praise for the Chinese. I have heard same things about China in other developing nations. China is attending to their needs what they feel is important.
India media is full of news about debt-trap. China is considered to be very cunning and helping developing nations so that they can be trapped into it.
There are a few cases some nations had problems with the debt. I haven’t studied them but it’s possible some greediness and carelessness had been involved. But intentional debt trap is hard to digest.
I think India has lost Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka even though publish news about how the cunning Chinese are hated throughout world. Seems like Japan (and its masters America) are the only ‘friend’ India is left with.
Until India gets rid of all its experts who get paid generously to spread lies about China, we are in dire situation. Imagine Bangladesh – standing in line to get its visa to work. That day might be coming sooner than expected.