US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry met with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Thursday evening to discuss newly-elected US President Joe Biden’s top priorities.

Biden on Wednesday took the oath of office and secrecy as the 46th President of the United States. Ambassador Berry noted that the Biden administration wants to partner with Nepal and other countries to meet the common challenges that no single nation can face of its own–from climate change to nuclear proliferation and from cyber warfare to global health challenges like Covid-19.

Prime Minister Oli in his congratulatory message had expressed his confidence that the United States would continue to achieve progress and prosperity under the able leadership of President Biden.

Reaffirming Nepal’s commitment to longstanding friendship with the United States, the prime minister has expressed Nepal’s desire to work together with the new US leadership at the bilateral level on matters of mutual interests and towards advancing agendas of global importance at the multilateral level, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Ambassador Berry told Prime Minister Oli that the new administration will use diplomacy as the premier tool for global engagement.

“President Biden believes in international cooperation to solve common challenges like COVID-19. To that end, President Biden will resume US membership in the World Health Organization. He will also restore the U.S. relationship with other international organizations and reinvigorate partnerships with democracies around the world, including Nepal,” the US embassy statement said.

After assuming office President Biden had said, “America has been tested and we have come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again. Not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s. We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example. We will be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security.”

As soon as taking office, President Biden revoked some of the key agreements and announcements made by the earlier Trump administration.

As a first order of business, President Biden has rejoined the Paris climate accord and will lead a diplomatic push to raise countries’ climate targets, including that of the United States. The Trump administration had disconnected with the Paris climate accord, its membership from the World Health Organization throwing the US out from multilateral engagements and the Biden administration is going to correct the decisions.

Ambassador Berry recognised Nepal is on the front lines of the impact of climate change, the statement said. He relayed the embassy’s desire to help make the Sagarmatha Sambad dialogue a success and discuss how to address the effects of climate change together.

Nepal was planning to host the first ever multilateral dialogue platform, Sagarmatha Sambad last year on various aspects and challenges of climate change but was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration will be a leader on human rights, by including having a focus on uplifting the rights of women and girls at home and around the world and ambassador Berry said he looked forward to working together on these issues.

The meeting with Prime Minister Oli was one in a succession of high-level meetings Ambassador Berry will have with Nepali government and political party leaders to discuss the new presidential administration’s global priorities, the US statement added.