Kathmandu, February 16
A photograph purporting to show the United States Army staging a parade at Tundikhel went viral on social media, stirring debate just weeks before Nepal’s parliamentary elections.
The image, shared widely online around the time of Nepal’s Army Day and the Hindu festival of Maha Shivaratri, prompted questions about the nature of American military presence in the country. In response, Nepal’s Army Headquarters urged the public not to be misled, describing the event as a routine and reciprocal engagement between friendly militaries.
“At the ceremony held annually on Army Day in Nepal, military band teams from other countries regularly participate as a gesture of friendship. We also send our own military contingents abroad,” Brig. Gen. Rajaram Basnet, spokesperson for the Nepali Army, said to Onlinekhabar. “Just recently, a Nepali band took part in India’s Army Day in a similar manner, and the announcements there were made in Nepali. Participation in various programs and joint exercises under army-to-army cooperation is a regular process.”
Basnet added that the Army had also clarified the matter in an official statement. Beyond ceremonial exchanges, he said, Nepal participates in youth exchange programs and other forms of military cooperation.
Nepal and the United States have maintained military ties since 1947. Successive governments in Nepal’s republican era have continued the practice of hosting foreign military bands during Army Day celebrations. Many Nepali Army officers attend staff colleges in the United States for training and education, while American personnel visit Nepal for official engagements.
Nepal also conducts joint military exercises, both at home and abroad, with countries including India, China, the United States, Britain and Pakistan. The Army said such activities are conducted regularly, as in the past.
With just over two weeks remaining before Nepal’s general elections, the American military band’s appearance has become a subject of partisan debate. One side has claimed that Western powers are backing a recent Gen Z–led protest movement and has portrayed the performance as part of that broader influence. Government and military officials, however, have dismissed such assertions, urging the public not to spread misinformation and describing the event as a continuation of a longstanding practice.
Officials close to the government noted that similar engagements took place during the tenures of former prime ministers K.P. Sharma Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba, and appealed to political actors not to turn routine military cooperation into election politics.
