Kathmandu, June 7:
Professor Surya P. Subedi suggested Nepal to focus on a few areas in which it has capacity to deliver.
Delivering a lecture on ‘Foreign Policy of Nepal: Past, Present and Future’ in the first edition of the Professor Yadu Nath Khanal Lecture Series, organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Tuesday in Kathmandu, Prof. Subedi suggested resorting to diplomacy for development, attracting Foreign Direct Investment and establishing international Himalayan and legal centre in the country.
Stating that the country has now some sort of political stability and stands for a new life, Prof. Subedi suggested that the foreign policy of Nepal should be designed to maintain peace for the people in the country. It should benefit from globalisation and international treaties.
Attracting, managing and retaining foreign investment are key to a country’s economic growth and development. “Attracting foreign investment is not the goal but a mean to reach a goal of creating infrastructure and stimulate economy, he said.
Prof. Subedi also recommended to include provisions of technology transfer, use of local raw materials and investment of certain profit in the country, protection of environment and respect to the human rights in the bilateral treaties. According to him, international agreements and treaties should be reviewed and reformed periodically since a decade old Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection (BIPPA) with India has already become an outdated instrument.
Another suggestion was to develop Nepal as an international financial services centre along the lines of Switzerland and Singapore. With a traditional image of a neutral country, Nepal could be an attractive place for people to safeguard their savings. However, it demands better regulations, said Prof. Subedi.
Likewise, Nepal could largely benefit from the development of its infrastructure to present it as a transit between the two large economies: India and China. “Developing ports and airports are fundamental to it. Connecting Kathmandu with Tibet is exciting and visionary, it could be a game changer in this part of the world,” he said.
Prof. Subedi, who is a scholar on international legal systems, suggested establishing Himalayan Peace Studies and a centre of international law in Nepal.
According to him, the former can be a vehicle to promote peace in the region while the latter would help guide the country to promote ‘national interest’ at the international level. “International laws are not in favour of developing nation so Nepal should collaborate with other countries like it to make some favourable changes in them,” he said.
Likewise, he recommended to move towards a permanent policy of ‘neutrality’ while maintaining that Nepal should promote its national interest first and create strategic balance. It is important for the good of the entire Hidu-Kush Himalayan region stretching from Myanmar to Pakistan.
“A unilateral declaration could make Nepal a ‘permanent neutral’ country. Then it can attract international attention and try to acquire international recognisition for the same,” he said.
The government is also suggested to seek meaningful representation of Nepal in international organisations. Despite its long-time contribution to the UN and other global platforms, Nepal has remained a low-profile nation and its impacts have been peripheral. There has never been representation of Nepal in the UN international law agency, said Prof. Subedi.
He stressed to adhere to three Cs for Nepal’s sound foreign policy: Continuity, consistency and credibility. Similarly, he said that amount of international attention to this continent and region will continuously increase in the days to come and it will impact Nepal, therefore, the country must be aware of the ramifications of the changing international dimensions.
Nepal has to be ready to deal with the challenges and benefit from opportunities, he stated.
“There are ever growing attraction to the east as the teachings of Gautam Buddha have become global phenomena, hence Nepal has a lot to contribute in this regard. Nepal must shed off ‘small nation’ syndrome,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Narayan Khadka, highlighted the initiatives taken by the government to promote national interest at the international level.
“Today’s foreign policy is not limited to bilateral and multilateral institutional arrangement alone but also to the issues like financial crisis, migrant and refugee crisis, cyber security, climate change and terrorism,” he said. The MoFA has initiated the lecture series on the domestic and global trends in foreign policies and diplomacy.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 8 June 2022.
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