Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah is set to break, this week, the rule he had long followed of not holding one-on-one or bilateral meetings with foreign ambassadors in Kathmandu.
The prime minister’s aides and diplomatic sources confirmed to The Post that he is to meet the Indian and Chinese ambassadors separately. Though no exact date has been announced, the meetings are expected this week, coordinated by the foreign ministry. The decision comes right after the government completed its first 100 days.
In a major departure from Nepal’s long-standing diplomatic practice, Shah had refused to meet foreign ambassadors individually since taking office. Instead, he held joint meetings with resident ambassadors on April 9 and May 26. Nepali diplomats, foreign-policy experts and observers widely praised the move as a more transparent and equitable approach to diplomatic communication.
The only exception was his meeting with Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda, who visited Nepal on a three-day trip from July 6.
Shah had also avoided meeting domestic stakeholders earlier, but has recently kept regular contact with businesspeople, contractors, industrialists and exporters.
An aide to the prime minister said: “The prime minister has been meeting various stakeholders for two weeks. We have now concluded that he should also talk with foreign ambassadors and diplomats. Given Nepal’s foreign-policy priorities, it is natural to begin with the ambassadors of our two neighbours, India and China.”
To show that New Delhi and Beijing are equally important to Nepal, Shah is scheduled to meet Indian Ambassador Navin Srivastava and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming on the same day.
After taking office on March 27, Shah had initially declined to meet even senior US diplomats visiting Nepal. Requests from the US Embassy in Kathmandu for meetings with Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Samir Paul Kapur and President Donald Trump’s special envoy for South and Central Asia, Sergio Gor, were turned down. Even US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah B Rogers did not get to meet the prime minister during a Nepal visit. In the past, newly elected Nepali prime ministers would meet foreign ambassadors individually within days of taking office.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report