Govt should discuss foreign policy with opposition: UML

Kathmandu, Aug. 3

Chief of Foreign Affairs Department (FAD) of the CPN-UML and former Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali has said that the government must hold discussions on foreign policy and affairs with the opposition parties.

"There should be a uniform voice in the matters of foreign affairs. But the government has not formally talked with opposition regarding such matters," he said to the journalists at an interaction organised by the Department.

Stating that the country must be clear on the opportunities and risks of both the bilateral and multilateral relations, he said that Nepal must not have an inferiority complex on the international stage.

"But even in the parliament foreign affairs has received less priority," Gyawali expressed worries and said, "We are ready to engage with the government on pertinent public issues"

According to him, disputes between friendly nations must not hamper the bilateral cooperation. Likewise, the government and responsible ministers must exhibit utmost care while commenting on the issues of foreign affairs and cooperation.

"Statements like calling Nepal a 'buffer zone' are unexpected. We are talking about equidistance or equi-proximity, so comments on border issues and bilateral relations can weaken our stand at the negotiation table," said Gyawali.

Suggesting that engagement with India and China is fundamental for Nepal's foreign policy and activities, the country should expand its horizon to newer avenues as well. 

He also said that proper care should be given to institutional development and staffing and capacity development of diplomats so that they can exercise special instruments like economic and development diplomacy.

Gyawali criticised the government move to appoint ambassadors through open competition and said that competent professionals must be picked by the government based on the requirement of the job in a particular country.

Meanwhile, he said that detachment with young people is a matter of serious concern, and all political parties should engage in dialogues with youth.

Talking about the reforms in the CPN-UML, he said that the party's reform is a must. "We must understand change and adapt to the new scenario. But a person-centric debate makes no sense," he said. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal on 4 August 2026. 

UML condemns Prachanda's remarks made to an Indian newspaper

 Kathmandu, Nov. 17

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) has condemned the remarks made by Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre), Pushpa Kamal Dahal, in an interview with an Indian newspaper 'The Hindu' on November 14 where the latter accused Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Chairman of UML as well, of 'using the China card' in politics.  

"His comments, accusing Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli of "using the China card" and labeling the decision to visit China as "proof of immaturity," are baseless, irresponsible, and deeply damaging to Nepal's sovereign image and foreign policy," the CPN-UML said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement signed by the Secretary and Chief of Department of Foreign Affairs of the CPN-UML, Raghubir Mahaseth, said that the party 'strongly condemned' the remarks made by the Prachanda who is also the three-time former prime minister of Nepal.

According to the UML, these statements are a blatant breach of diplomatic protocol and show a complete disregard for Nepal's independence.

"Nepal, as a sovereign nation, requires no external approval for its diplomatic engagements. The Prime Minister's decision to visit China is a reflection of Nepal's independent foreign policy, not a gambit of "card diplomacy" as falsely claimed," read the statement.

The UML also said that Prachanda's remarks undermine the delicate balance Nepal maintains with its two friendly neighbors, India and China, both of whom are part to Nepal's development and prosperity. Such thoughtless commentary risks jeopardizing the strong and equal partnerships Nepal has cultivated with these nations, according to the party.

According to the CPN-UML, rather than engaging constructively in national discourse, Prachanda has resorted to baseless accusations that undermine Nepal's sovereignty and national dignity. His words reflect disdain for Nepal's sovereignty and an obsession with political maneuvering at the expense of the nation's dignity.  

The party also claimed that Prime Minister Oli has demonstrated balanced and pragmatic foreign policy approach prioritising Nepal's sovereignty and national interests while fostering mutual respect and cooperation with both India and China.

Stating that foreign policy is not a matter for petty political squabbling, and it demands wisdom, caution, and responsibility, the UML said Prachanda's remarks are not only unfounded but also harmful to Nepal's international standing. It also urged Prachanda to retract his statement. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 18 November 2024.  

Avoid extreme comments on foreign policy: Oli

 Kathmandu, Aug. 5

Former Prime Minister and Chairman of CPN-UML, KP Sharma Oli, said that the political parties and experts must refrain from making extreme comments on foreign policy of the country and its relations with the friendly nations.

"Political parties and leaders should save themselves from making extreme comments as well as taking such steps in terms of foreign policy," he said while speaking at a programme on 'CPN-UML's perspective on current international situation and Nepal's foreign policy' organised by the Foreign Affairs Department of CPN-UML.

According to him, there could be differences and internal political conflicts but foreign policy exercise shouldn't go out of track.

However, he demanded greater transparency in the government's dealings and agreements with neighbouring and friendly countries. "Government is signing agreement against the national, economic and other interests. There should be transparency in the dealings and consensus among the political parties," said Oli.

He stated that the recent India visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ failed to make any progress in terms of accepting the report of Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Nepal and India.

The EPG was made during his prime ministership in January 2016 in the aftermath of the blockade imposed on Nepal by India.

Oli maintained that the governments of the two countries had been discussing the date for the report submission but that couldn't be materialised.

According to him, foreign policy of Nepal is not weak but the dealings have been weak. "Current government has weak performance in terms of foreign policy practice which is further proven by the failure in signing deal in the national interest during the last visit of PM Prachanda," he said.

If we can't raise the issue of our priority and just demands with the neighbouring countries, we are a weak nation, stated Oli.

"We can't exhibit belligerence, we don't have the might for it. So, we need to resort to the international laws to protect our national interest. If there is an absence of law, lobbying should be put into effect to create one," he suggested.

Meanwhile, Oli said that Nepal's foreign policy and diplomatic exercise should orient to promote trade and attract investment. According to him, import substitution and export promotion should be the key agenda as there is a need to increase production and productivity.

He also said that any activity that jeopardise the international peace should be condemned.

“Current competition on strategic power promotion and hostility promoted by some powerful countries would weaken the global peace. It wouldn't be in the interest of Nepal and the humanity,” he said.

Similarly, he suggested not devising or exercising foreign policy based on any ideology and maintaining neutrality to discourage war.

According to the former PM, Nepal should bring in financial and other support for national development from the regional powers as well as other developed nations and organisations since the country lacks resources and is in dire need of capital and technology. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 6 August 2023.   

NC-led coalition collapses in a dramatic development in 17 months

Kathmandu, Dec. 25

Dramatic political developments of a few hours have changed the entire political course of Nepal, preventing  the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR), from gaining any political post, not only in the centre but also in all seven provinces.

The ruling coalition of five parties – NC, CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (Unified Socialists), Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal and Rastriya Janamorcha-- that stayed strong until the elections crumbled within a matter of a day as the largest partners in the coalition NC and CPN (MC) could not reach an agreement as to who should lead the government in the first  term of two years

Chairman of the CPN (Maoist Centre), Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda had reached Baluwatar early morning on Sunday to finalise the future course of the alliance by deciding the name of the  new prime minister before the deadline set by the President Bidya Devi Bhandari to submit a letter of a member of the House of Representatives showing that he would garner majority votes to become the PM as per the Article 76(2) of the Constitution of Nepal was to expire.

According to the sources, Prachanda wanted to lead the government in the first term of  two years and leave the post to  NC's President Sher Bahadur Deuba, leaving the posts of the President and Speaker of the HoR to the latter. But as Deuba wanted to lead the government himself in the first term and intended to keep the post of the president for NC itself, it only irked Prachanda. Later Prachanda reached Balkot to meet CPN (UML) chairman KP Sharma Oli, and it ultimately altered the political scenario.   

An extensive meeting of the leaders from the parties including CPN (UML), CPN (MC), Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janamat Party and Janata Samajwati Party-Nepal at Oli’s Balkot residence decided to form the government under the leadership of Prachanda.

Later in the afternoon, the new alliance recommended Prachanda's name as the Prime Minister claiming that the majority members of the House supported him. The application included the signatures of Oli, Prachanda, Swatantra Party's chairman Rabi Lamichhane, Janamat Party's chairman Chandra Kanta Raut, Nagarik Unmukti Party's chair Ranjita Shrestha, Janta Samajwadi Party-Nepal’s president, Upendra Yadav, and three independent parliamentarians – Prabhu Shah, Kiran Kumar Shah, and Dr. Amaresh Kumar Singh.

The CPN (UML) has contributed 78 members to the new ruling coalition, CPN (MC) 32 members, Swatantra Party 20 members, RPP 14, JSP 12, Janamat Party six and Nagarik Unmukti Party four members.

According to the sources from UML and MC, the UML will get the posts of the President and the Speaker of the HoR. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 26 December 2022. 

Oli stresses on creating regional energy infrastructure

Kathmandu, Jan. 28: Former Prime Minister and Chair of the CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli Sunday said that Nepal should create regional energy infrastructure to facilitate the power trade.

"This is also necessary in the context of seasonality of power production and consumption, energy mix, cost effectiveness in transmission and distribution, substation of energy demand by clean and renewable energy than fossil fuel based ones," he said while addressing the Nepal Power Investment Summit 2018.

He said that regional cooperation in energy was also about energy trading in South Asia and Nepal should create environment for energy trade also under the spirit of South Asian Free Trade Association (SAFTA) and create regional energy infrastructure for power trade.

According to him, electricity is a tradable good, and is heavily traded globally. Nepal's demand for electricity for domestic consumption for an economic growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent can be met with the installation of only 15,000 megawatt of hydropower capacity.

"As one of the key development strategies, our party intends to ensure energy security to our citizens along with other securities such as food security," said Oli.

He busted the myths related to energy in the country saying that the energy demand in Nepal would grow by higher than the present estimate of 10 to 12 percent per annum.

In fact, economic transformation and development of energy substitution technology in transportation, industry business and household consumption will create energy demand for geometrical growth in power consumption, he said.

Oli emphasised that the creation of higher power demand at home calls for restructuring the transportation, industrial and business systems, and the country needs to create new electric infrastructure by building electric trains, electric metros, electric vehicles and electricity based cooking.

"The result of such will be replacing of imported fossil fuel which in turns preserves the environment of Nepal and provides pollution free future for all our citizens," he said.

Traditional fuel source such as wood covers three fourth of energy demand in Nepal. Industrial, commercial and transport energy are mostly based on fossil fuel. Current energy consumption at 140 KWh is very low compared with the South Asian average of more than 700 KWh.

Oli said that Nepal intends to increase the consumption of 1500 KWh in 15 years which calls for rapid growth in electricity generation.

He also shared that his party, CPN-UML, aims at generating 15,000 MW of energy in 10 years with an energy mix of hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative energy sources.

Meanwhile, speaking at the summit, experts and industry insiders have called for more optimizations and innovative ways of financing in a bid to further develop Nepal’s hydropower sector. Speaking during a panel discussion, 'FDI in Nepal’s Power Sector', the developers said that at a time when the per capita energy consumption in Nepal was low, there was no way than attracting foreign investment in Nepal’s power landscape.

“However, since hydropower projects are capital intensive and have longer gestation period, innovative financing solutions like equity financing is the game of the time,” says RajenKandel, Director of Kandel Group.

According to him lack of investment opportunity within Nepal and the growing demand of energy every day offers high level of investment scope to the international investors to build hydropower projects in Nepal.

N. L. Sharma, Chairman of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, however, pointed out political instability, lack of tax incentive, hassles during the land accusation and clearance of forest and environment as some of the factors distracting FDI in Nepal’s energy sector.

The speakers also called for independent power sector regulator to check the demand and supply side situation as well as to fix the energy tariff.

Apar Neupane, Vice-President, Finance at Equicap Asia Pvt Ltd said that the mismatching of several stakeholders’ interest was a biggest hindrance for FDI to come to Nepal. “From the government to the project affected area, from the developer to contractor and financer, there are multiple stakeholder involved,” he said. “Unluckily, they have their own interests. The more their interests collide, the project less likely to succeed.”

Joseph Hoess, Director of Dragon Capital, Vietnam says that the hassles that any foreign investors have to go through while doing ground works were what was aggravating the situation. “We are private sector who look maximized return within short period of time, but here in Nepal we have to invest more than five years doing basis things, getting approvals and clearances,” he said. “Nobody is interested in spending such a longer time for all those trifles.”

Gorakh Rana, Head of Commercial and Global Banking at Standard Chartered Bank, said that the Nepal’s banks had not been able to extend sufficient financing for the hydropower projects due to the lack of communication.

Naoki Nishimura, a JICA representative, urged for a strong local partner to attract the FDI.“The efficient local partner with ability to equity financing and doing background work for the foreign investor can play a significant role in bringing in huge amount of foreign investment of Nepal’s energy sector,” he said.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on Jan. 29, 2018. 

UML leads in PR votes

Kathmandu, Dec. 13:

The CPN-UML, which topped the chart in the first-past-the-post (FPTP) federal and provincial elections, has also emerged as the largest party in the proportional representative (PR) elections, as per the vote counting results by Wednesday evening.

The UML is leading in five of the seven provinces in the vote counting of the House of Representatives under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system.

As of Wednesday evening, the UML had received 2.272 million votes against 2.182 million of the Nepali Congress from across the country.

The CPN-Maoist Centre has received 900, 266, Federal Socialist Alliance, led by Upendra Yadav, 299,929 and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal 236,771 votes.

The CPN-UML is trailing behind only in Province 2 and 7. In Province 2, the CPN-UML is placed in fourth position and in Province 7 in second position.

The NC is leading in the two provinces and is placed in the second spot in the other five provinces.

The voting trend has shown that only these five parties will be able to cross the threshold margin although the RJP-N is still short of 63,000 votes to cross the margin.

Other parties like the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Naya Shakti Party (NSP) and the Bibeksheel Sajha Party (BSP) are not likely to cross the threshold margin.

About 6.5 million votes cast for the PR to the federal assembly have been counted so far.

In Province 1, the UML is leading the chart with the NC following it while the FSF and RPP have made their way to the top 5. The UML and NC garnered 521,878 and 437,945 votes respectively. The MC got 168,918 votes in the province.

FSF and RPP obtained 52,819 and 46,931 votes respectively.

In Province 2, NC has emerged as the largest party in the PR election with 208,162 votes, followed by RJPN with 159,843 votes, FSF with 155,272 votes, UML with 134,721 and MC 88,516 votes.

Similarly, in Province 3, the UML, NC, MC, BSP and RPP have become the top-five parties with 435,886 votes, 359,330 votes, 209,839 votes, 83,826 and 49,236 votes respectively.

In Province 4, the UML tops the list with 315,437 votes while NC has garnered 310,996 votes.

Likewise, MC, NSP and Rastriya Jana Morcha have got 109,773 votes, 24,077 votes and 19,129 votes respectively.

The UML also tops the list with 435,476 votes in Province 5.

The NC, MC, FSF and RJPN got 426,752 votes, 197,820 votes, 65,592 votes and 40,483 votes respectively.

In Province 6, the UML has received 104,038 and NC 99,753 votes. Likewise, the MC, RPP and Nepal Workers and Peasant Party (NWPP) have obtained 79,476 votes, 6,878 votes and 6,824 votes respectively.

However, in Province 7, the NC has got the highest votes at 166,180 while the UML has got 154,361 votes. Similarly, the MC, RPP and RJPN have received 70,732 votes, 9,094 and 3,574 votes.

The UML has the largest share of winners in the FPTP to the House of Representatives with 48.48 per cent seats and 80 representatives, and its election ally MC has secured 36 seats, 21.82 per cent share in the Federal Assembly.

Likewise, the NC has won from 23 election constituencies (13.94 per cent) across the country, RJP from 11, FSF 10 and other 5.

Province	One	Two	Three	Four	Five	Six	Seven
First	UML	NC	UML	UML	UML	UML	NC
Second	NC	RJPN	NC	NC	NC	NC	UML
Third	MC	FSF	MC	MC	MC	MC	MC
Fourth	FSF	UML	BSP	NSP	FSF	RPP	RPP
Fifth	RPP	MC	RPP	RJM	RJPN	NWPP	RJPN

Nepal needs long term planning: Nepal

Kathmandu, Mar. 25: Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Saturday said that country needed long term planning for sustainable development, and any obstacles that come in the way of development should be discouraged.

"There is conspiracy in not approving large-scale projects while some forces are always trying not to let large scale projects and investment come to Nepal," he said while addressing a workshop on 'Development and Prosperity' organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the CPN-UML at Kathmandu School of Law, Bhaktapur.

He leads the Department of Foreign Affairs of the party.

According to Nepal, in order to take the country on the path of development, major laws and policies should be amended to create conducive environment for large-scale projects. "Failing to do so means the development will be like a chimera."

"Development planning should be far-sighted. I saw a single-lane bridge on the way while I was travelling to Jajarkot a couple of days ago. Such myopic development plan should be corrected," he said.

Sharing his experience as the Prime Minister, Nepal criticized the bureaucracy for being sluggish.

"Bureaucracy is not development-oriented, and sometimes the court had also halted the development works. When our government had planned to expand the road from Maitighar to Bhaktapur about two decades ago, the Everest Hotel filed a case at the court and the latter issued a stay order. The trend is ever growing," he said.

Former Finance Minister Surendra Pandey presented a paper on the Development model for Nepal.

President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Suraj Vaidya, economist Dr. Bijaya Poudel, sociologists Hari Sharma and Dr. Suresh Dhakal, and lawyer Yuba Raj Sangraula commented on the work-paper.

Former minister Keshav Badal, former member of the National Planning Commission Dr. Bhim Neupane, lawmaker Lalbabu Yadav, former parliamentarians Dr. Dilli Raj Khanal, Hari Bairagi Dahal, governance expert Dr. Khim Lal Devkota and other experts also expressed their views on the topic.

Similarly, in the second session of the programme, former vice-chairman of the NPC and governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada presented a paper on 'Nepal's economic development: challenges and opportunities'.

The session was chaired by vice-chairman of UML Bhim Rawal.

Technology expert Mahabir Pun, agriculture expert Dr. Durga Dutta Dhakal, tourism expert Prachanda Man Shrestha, water resources expert Surya Nath Upadhyaya and banker Chandra Dhakal commented on the paper. 

UML can organize its programmes in Terai: Yadav

Terai-based parties exploiting Madhesi people: Acharya

Kathmandu, Mar. 8: A senior leader of Madhesi Morcha Mahendra Ray Yadav Wednesday said that the alliance of the Terai-based parties had no intention or policies to prevent the CPN-UML from organising any programme in Terai districts.

“Now UML can conduct its programmes and run campaign in any places in Terai. Morcha had not obstructed it in the past and will not do so in the days to come,” he said while speaking at an interaction here.

He defended that the alliance never said to bar the main opposition from entering Terai-Madhes.

He said, “Commence the Mechi-Mahakali campaign right from Saptari, we won’t disturb. We don’t have policy to agitate against it. If our cadres had created any sort of disturbances to its programme, give us their names, we will take action against them or ask the government to punish them accordingly, said Yadav.

According to him, Morcha was not behind vandalism at UML party offices and house of the party leaders, there might have been infiltration into the UML programmes intended to defame it.  

He reiterated that Morcha would not obstruct UML’s campaign which is slated for Friday from Hetauda of Makwanpur district.

“It’s their right to run party campaign,” he said.

Yadav blamed the government for the shooting and killing at Rajbiraj and said, “The government is responsible for the incident. It gave orders to shoot. We ask the government to bring the culprit to book.”

He said that the constitution amendment bill should be passed before holding elections and federal elections should be conducted in the first stage.

Meanwhile, UML secretary Bhim Acharya said that in democracy, no one should be obstructed from expressing their opinion and to organizing party activities.

He blamed the Terai-based parties for exploiting Madhesi people.

 “Mechi-Mahakali Campaign will start from Friday and we will move west from Chitwan. We have put programmes in Province No 2, we will go there later,” he said.

Acharya said that the UML had to go to Terai-Madhes as the Terai-based parties had spread rumours against the main opposition.

“The constitution must be implemented and there should be elections for that. Therefore, our campaign is for the same,” he remarked.

“Morcha was afraid of UML’s campaign which was resulted in such accident. There were more than 10,000 people in the mass-meeting. We could have retaliated against them but we were serious about not to make any loss of life and property.”

According to him, the government and Morcha jointly tried to obstruct UML’s meeting in Rajbiraj.

“The meeting was disturbed by the Morcha and the government gave orders to open fire. Therefore, blaming UML for the incident is sponsored statements,” he said.

He reiterated that the UM was not in favour of constitution amendment.

Amendment proposal is erroneous - Oli

Kathmandu, Jan 1: CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli Sunday said that the constitution amendment proposal was erroneous in its essence, process, content and outcome.

In an appeal to the people to participate in the mass rally to be organized on 6^th January in Kathmandu, Oli said that the amendment proposal had been forwarded at a time when the preparations for the local, provincial and federal election should have been expedited in order to complete them by 21^st January 2018 as per the constitutional provision.

"The amendment has pushed the elections into uncertainty. It is against the provision of Articles 274 (4) and 296 of the Constitution and verdict of the Supreme Court,” read the appeal.

The former Prime Minister said that there lay ill-intention behind the amendment as it seeks to harm the harmony among the people, and divide the country into the Terai and Hill/Mountain and establish two nations.

He also stated that the efforts at changing the structure of the National Assembly were dangerous as it would disturb the provincial balance in the Assembly and ultimately weaken just representation of the provinces.

“The amendment proposal has created a political crisis in the country. It has contributed to widen the gap between the political parties that collaborated in writing and implementing the constitution, and created conflict in the society,” said Oli.

Saying that constitution amendment should be on basis of the necessity, rationality, national interest and public desire, the UML chair said, “We had urged the government not to undermine the consent of 90 per cent representatives in the Parliament just to make somebody else or a group of people happy.”

He said that people had been protesting the proposal for more than a month, and even the leaders of the ruling parties were against it but the government had been continuously ignoring the voice of the people and making the political environment more complicated.

According to Oli, there was only one way out for the amicable solution of the current crisis – withdrawal of the ‘unconstitutional’ amendment proposal and expedite the election process.

He said that the CPN-UML had been continuously asking the government to accept the proposal of the Local Body Restructuring Commission and formally begin the restructuring process, declare the date of the elections at all three levels, table the election-related bills in the parliament and publish the action plan for constitutional implementation.

“We are ready to assist the government in all these issues, but we will never accept any activity in the name of constitution amendment,” he warned.

The appeal said that women, dalits, marginalised communities, working class, minorities and various ethnicities including Madheshis would be affected if the constitution was not implemented.

The CPN-UML and nine other political parties have been preparing for a mass demonstration on 6^th January.