A draft of Nepal’s foreign policy, reflecting the changed regional and global contexts, is ready, people working on it have said.

But the drafting panel is in a dilemma whether to submit it now as the parties are busy with elections and a new government is due in mid-December. Fearful of potential rejection by the new administration, the panel is buying time for late submission, the members said.

The team received a wide range of political support from all major parties, and the prime minister, which means its acceptance is high, said Indra Adhikari, a taskforce member. The panel was tasked with reviewing the country’s foreign policy and providing suggestions for its revision in the changed global context.

The Cabinet formed the panel on April 12, giving it four months to draft a new foreign policy, along with a neighbourhood policy for the country to adopt in the long, short and medium terms.

The panel has suggested that immediate neighbours India and China are Nepal’s foreign policy priority. As a landlocked country, Nepal is advised to win the trust of these two countries as they aspire to become global powers.

The 16-member panel headed by the foreign minister was split into four sub-groups to report on political, economic, security and institutional reform themes. 

The panel is said to have looked into Nepal’s bilateral, sub-regional and multilateral foreign policies. It also suggested ways to make development diplomacy effective on the basis of the country’s experiences and new requirements.

The team has recommended measures to empower the Foreign Ministry and the Nepali missions abroad in order to make international relations and diplomacy more effective. The panel suggests that foreign policy and domestic matters should be viewed separately.

The draft highlights perspective that politics and security are interlinked, stressing the necessity of political consensus among the stakeholders for assuring the neighbours on their security concerns.