How has Nepal maintained friendly relationship with their neighbours ?
Answers
Answer: Though the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MO-FA) is the government agency responsible for the conduct of foreign relations of Nepal, historically, it is the Office of Prime Minister (POM) that has exercised the authority to formulate and conduct policies related to Nepal's foreign affairs. As a landlocked country wedged between two larger and far stronger powers, Nepal has tried to maintain good relations with both of its neighbor, People's Republic of China and Republic of India.[1] However, relationship with India, the country with greater hegemonic power over Nepal, has seen major ups and downs in recent years. Given Nepal's geographical vulnerabilities, traditionally Nepal's southern neighbor India, has been able to shape Nepal's foreign policy to serve India's interest even to the detriment of Nepal's own interest. However, with the ongoing democratization of Nepal, and, shifting of the state-power from the hands of few elitists to democratically elected government institution, India has been facing increasing resistance within Nepal in implementing foreign policies that are detrimental to Nepal's own interest. In recent years, Indian government's attempts to deny landlocked Nepal 'Transit rights' via India as a fundamental right for a member of the UN, as guaranteed in the UN charter, and, the issues of occupation of some Nepalese territories by Indian forces have significantly hampered the relationship between the two countries.[2] For most part though, Nepal has traditionally maintained a non-aligned policy and enjoys friendly relations with neighboring countries and almost all the major countries of the world.
Constitutionally, foreign policy is to be guided by “the principles of the United Nations Charter, nonalignment, Panache (five principles of peaceful coexistence), international law and the value of world peace.” In practice, foreign policy has not been directed toward projecting influence internationally but toward preserving autonomy and addressing domestic economic and security issues.
Nepal's most substantive international relations are perhaps with international economic institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a multilateral economic development association. Nepal also has strong bilateral relations with major providers of economic and military aid, such as France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, the United States, and particularly the United Kingdom, with whom military ties date to the nineteenth century. The country's external relations, barring relations with India and China, are primarily managed by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs while relationship with India and China, Nepal's most important partners, is still managed by the Prime Minister's Office. Nepal's relation with China has seen a major upswing in the recent years with China now becoming Nepal's 3rd largest aid donor (after the UK and Japan), and the largest source of FRI to Nepal.