Kathmandu, October 23
The government of Nepal has endorsed its new foreign policy.
A recent cabinet meeting endorsed the policy, according to sources close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The government, however, has not made any official announcement about the endorsement and implementation of the new policy.
This is the first time that the government issued an integrated foreign policy. Although the constitution, various acts and policies had been deciding the country’s foreign policy, such an integrated document was never implemented in Nepal.
Speaking with Onlinekhabar earlier this month, Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali had said the policy would transform Nepal’s geographic position between two giant countries as an opportunity for economic development.
“The policy that we are drafting will reflect changes occurred in the country’s internal life and the external world and its geopolitics,” Gyawali had said, “As the constitution has clearly stipulated what our national interest is, we are preparing an integrated written document about our way forward.”
Gyawali had claimed the new policy would transform the country’s geopolitical situation into an opportunity. “Being situated between two of the biggest global markets, and having several cultural connections with both of them is an opportunity,” he said.
Likewise, he had said the document would also guide Nepal’s relationships with the entire world including the country’s ‘traditional friends’ and development partners such as Japan, the United States and many European nations, as well as immediate neighbours.
