Multilateral diplomacy and soft power to strategically push countries' interests and agendas through effective participation at formal and informal summits, bilateral meetings and diplomatic gatherings are valuable to a country’s progress. So, those without hard tools, such as money, military and intelligence power, trade and transit mechanisms, are more inclined to them.

In Nepal’s case, multilateral diplomacy is significant for many reasons. First, Nepal’s geopolitical situation demands effective multilateral diplomacy to prevent and minimise foreign interference in the country’s domestic policies and decision-making. There is a growing global competition for strategic influence between our two giant neighbours. So, rule-based, inclusive and accountable multilateral systems can help Nepal maintain balanced bilateral relationships with its neighbours.

Second, major global issues that require a global approach (multilateralism) have huge implications for Nepal. For example, the intensity of increasing conflicts worldwide directly and indirectly impacts the country. Development financing is in crisis because the global financial architecture struggles to respond to multiple crises. Due to increased conflicts and geopolitics, the value of military spending reached $2.44 trillion globally in 2023, limiting the ability of many developing countries, including Nepal to invest in critical areas like healthcare, education and infrastructure. Ensuring sustainable financing is critical to build on the milestones achieved by the country in poverty reduction, education and health during the last 30 years.

According to a report by the National Planning Commission, Nepal needs $18 billion annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030; however, the country’s annual budget is about $ 13 billion. The Covid-19 pandemic has undermined Nepal’s ability to increase its domestic resource mobilisation and achieve the SDGs by 2030. Moreover, Nepal desperately needs additional resources to address the climate emergency, another major global issue severely impacting Nepal’s overall progress. According to the World Bank, Nepal could lose 2.2 percent of its annual GDP by 2050 because of climate change. The country is one of the least contributors to the emissions of greenhouse gases yet among the top 20 most vulnerable countries to climate change. Fair access to climate funds, including the ‘loss and damage funds’, is a matter of climate justice for Nepal.

Third, to build an inclusive and sustainable future, Nepal must tap into the potential of technologies, trade and connectivity by overcoming global challenges. The global trade reform is important given Nepal’s graduation from the list of Least Developed Countries in 2026 which will directly impact its trade-related assistance, concessions and market access and could worsen the nation’s alarmingly high trade deficit.

Besides, as one of the top suppliers of peacekeepers in the world, Nepal has significantly contributed to the global public good—global peace and security—and thus deserves reciprocal global assistance for its development and prosperity.

Pact for the future

The world leaders adopted the Pact for the Future in New York on September 22 and 23, 2024. The Pact includes 56 action points in five chapters on sustainable development and financing for development; international peace and security; science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation; youth and future generations and transforming global governance. It also includes two important annexes: the ‘Global Digital Compact’ and the ‘Declaration on Future Generations’.

The world leaders coming together to adopt an ambitious, comprehensive and futuristic blueprint for international cooperation, development and multilateralism is positive news. This comes when the world is going through multiple interconnected global challenges—climate change, conflict, geopolitical tensions, and so on. According to the 2023-24 Human Development Report, uneven development progress is leaving the poorest behind, exacerbating inequality and pushing SDGs further off track.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli led Nepal’s delegation at the Summit of the Future and the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA). Both Oli and Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba participated in several events, including meetings like the G20, UN Security Council, LDC discussions and dialogues and bilateral meetings with world leaders.

Representing Nepal as the Chair of the Group of the LDCs, Rana raised the issue of growing inequalities, extreme poverty, youth unemployment, climate injustice, the global digital divide and economic challenges due to the debt burden, insufficient and delayed official development assistance and barriers to accessing finances from the global financial markets.

Nepal called for coordinated and comprehensive policies for investment in productivity capacity, infrastructure, sustainable industrialisation and economic diversification. Nepal wholeheartedly welcomed the ‘Pact for the Future’ as a blueprint for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future, a manifesto for the future generation and a renewed commitment to multilateralism.

Now, the question is when and how this Pact will be implemented. Critics argue that many UN resolutions and agreements are only strong in words, giving it the nickname ‘Babble of Tower’.

Success in Nepal’s participation, representation and engagement at the 79th UNGA depends on whether the fractured global community can quickly and effectively establish mechanisms to implement and monitor all 56 action points outlined in the Pact.

The adoption of the Pact happened when conflicts in Europe (the Russian-Ukraine war), the Middle East (the Israel-Gaza-Lebanon conflict), and parts of Africa intensified with the implication of increased polarisation among nations. Russia and Israel have bluntly ignored the ruling of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an encroachment on their national sovereignty at a time when the new Pact for the Future aims to strengthen international laws and orders.

Many countries still have their reservations. For example, India has strongly voiced the need for effective technological regulation to ensure national sovereignty and integrity. China was concerned about single-handedly imposed sanctions and the implications of geopolitics. Some are worried about misinformation from unregulated big tech companies’ social media. The Group of 77 (G77) highlighted that the Pact didn’t sufficiently address the growing inequality between rich and poor countries. Russia, Iran, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria expressed their views regarding national sovereignty when international decision-making processes interfere with their domestic matters.

Notably, it is important to consider whether the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are willing to support UN reforms, particularly expanding the 15-member council to include more members from the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and Latin America.

In this divided geopolitical environment, Nepal should continue its multilateral diplomacy at major global forums to push world leaders to deliver on the ‘Pact for the Future’ pledges. The government should also prepare a national action plan for implementing this Pact. It should provide a detailed proposal for how it wants to see the Pact being implemented globally. Similarly, the proposal should include how Nepal will domesticate the Pact for the Future in its national development agenda.