'Developmental autonomy: Nepal's doctrine of statecraft'

Kathmandu, Sept. 25

Minister for Foreign Affairs Shisir Khanal has said that developmental autonomy is the doctrine of Nepal's statecraft.

"Developmental autonomy is not about choosing sides, it is about increasing our value across three confident, unified directions," he said while speaking at the Asia Society organised in the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly ongoing in New York. 

According to him, Nepal’s strategy centres on three directions: southward, northward and global engagement. Southward, it aims to use its open border with India, hydropower potential and Special Economic Zones to expand manufacturing, clean-energy exports and regional supply chains.

Northward, Nepal seeks to become a land-linked economy through roads, railways, dry ports, aviation and digital connectivity, alongside Himalayan cooperation on climate and disaster resilience. It also emphasises transparent financing and sovereign autonomy in cooperation with China.

Likewise, at the global level, Nepal plans deeper partnerships with the US, Europe, Japan, ASEAN and the Gulf. Its clean power, cool climate and diaspora can support digital, fintech and AI development, said FM Khanal. 

However, he said that Nepal’s future cannot be charted in isolation, so it must be written for Nepali people, but it cannot be authored by Nepalis alone. "To our partners in the United States, across Europe, throughout ASEAN, Latin America, and beyond: our doors are open, our rules are transparent, and you are warmly welcome to build alongside us," he said.

"Nepal was a civilizational bridge in the past. We are an economic bridge in our present. And we will be a strategic bridge for our future," he said.

He also informed the panel that Nepal has set a national goal of achieving middle income status in the next 10 years and high-income, developed status by 2050.

FM Khanal stressed that the recent tragedy of Bhotekoshi floods offered an unmistakable foreign-policy imperative for Nepal - treating climate change as an existential strategic priority.

"We, therefore, must focus on robust ecological cooperation: better early warning mechanisms, hydrological data-sharing, predictable grant-based climate finance, and practical collaboration with the neighbours and global community," he reiterated while adding that when a nation cannot alter its physical geography, it must summon strategic agency. 

Stating that with nearly 30 million people, Nepal has a population larger than Australia's, and if placed in the European Union, it would be its sixth-most populous member, he said Nepal's neighbours’ scale is a fact of geography, it must never become the ceiling of the country's ambition. "Nepal is not small," he said.

He also said that when the world speaks of Asia, the western imagination often races east toward Shanghai, Singapore or Tokyo. Yet South Asia is home to two billion people and some of the fastest-transforming societies on earth. Delhi, Dhaka, and Kathmandu are just as central to this resurgence.

Informing that long before modern cartography, the Kathmandu Valley was a wealthy, cosmopolitan entrepôt connecting the Gangetic plains to the Tibetan plateau, the foreign minister said, "The architectural wonders of our Durbar Squares were built by wealth generated from trans-Himalayan commerce."

 

FM holds sideline meeting with McNeill, Wong

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal discussed Nepal-UK relations with the UK’s Minister of State for International Development, Kirsty McNeill, at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly ongoing in New York.

"During the meeting, both sides discussed ways to further strengthen the Nepal-UK bilateral cooperation, which has been expanding in recent times. In particular, they discussed making cooperation with the UK more effective in the recovery and reconstruction efforts following the devastating disaster that recently struck Nepal," FM Khanal's Secretariat informed.

Minister Khanal highlighted the importance of international partnerships and support as Nepal continues its post-disaster rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.

Likewise, FM Khanal also held a bilateral meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

They discussed the loss of lives and property caused by the devastating floods that recently hit Nepal, as well as ongoing rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. Minister Khanal expressed appreciation for international support for post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The two ministers also discussed further strengthening the friendly relations between Nepal and Australia and expanding areas of bilateral cooperation. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 26 September 2026.