Dr. Lohani suggest resisting cultural invasion

Lalitpur, Jan. 24:

Former Foreign Minister Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani has said that Nepal should resist cultural invasions which have been manifested in the rapid conversion drive in the support of different missions.

"Nepal must resist cultural invasion, but it has failed to do so," he said while speaking at an interaction on 'Nepal's diplomacy in present context' organised by Nepal Council of World Affairs (NCWA) on Thursday.

He said that certain European countries' thrust of diplomacy with Nepal has long been the expansion of Christianity and the latter should consider this fact while creating and practising diplomacy in the changing cultural context as well along with the dynamic international dealings.

Dr. Lohani said that rebalance was needed in Nepal's relations with India and China.

"If we failed to rebalance our diplomatic and economic relations with India, then China will search for ways to enhance its influence in Nepal. We should go for co-existence," he said.

Dr. Lohani, who had been the Finance Minister in the past, said that India still wanted to impose umbrella doctrine, as propagated by Jawaharlal Nehru after India's independence, on Nepal.

"India is in anxiety now. It applied every instrument of diplomacy and blackmailing like the blockade three years ago but couldn't bend Nepal," he said. "Same is happening with the relations between China and the United States as the latter is perplexed with the rise of China which it has long been denying."

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey said that Nepal should create strategy for track-two diplomacy and orientation should be provided to all the stakeholders, including the private sector and media.

He said that the Institute of Foreign Affairs should be upgraded and strengthened in order to produce qualified and capable diplomats who can push national interest in the international context.

"Diplomacy should be used to attain economic prosperity. Economic diplomacy needs to be promoted to attract more Foreign Direct Investment and tourists in Nepal," he said.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat recommended developing diplomatic policy with Nepal's national, economic, strategic and security interests at the centre.

"We should create equilibrium in our relations with India and China. We have made the diplomacy an issue of the streets which should be immediately stopped," he said.

He said that the present government must be serious about exercising the rights of the landlocked country.

He criticised the government for patronising the controversial Asia Pacific Summit which was against the spirits of the Constitution.

Former Ambassador of Nepal to Geneva Dr. Shambhu Ram Simkhada said that the diplomacy in the present context should be for prosperity.

According to him, the mismanagement of transition has serious repercussions on the foreign policy and diplomacy.

They said that Nepal-India border should be regulated in order to curtail undesired activities like drugs and goods smuggling and human trafficking as well as cross-border crime and terrorism.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 January 2019.