As several foreign policy reports are gathering dust at the Prime Minister Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Relations and Human Rights Committee of the Parliament on Friday decided to form a sub-committee to study the status of the country’s foreign policy.

A meeting of the parliamentary panel decided to form a new sub-committee, which will be entrusted to thoroughly study various reports submitted in the past, status of their implementation and submit a new report, according to the decision.

According to Pabitra Kharel, the chairman of the International Relations and Human Rights Committee of the Parliament, Pushpa Bhsual, Dipak Prakash Bhatta, and Lila Devi Situala are members of the sub-committee, which will have representation of all political parties in parliament. The issues left out in Nepal’s foreign policy, issues needing amendment or correction and issues of priority will be incorporated in the new study.

But some diplomats and foreign policy experts have expressed concerns over the duplication of work while preparing such reports and serious doubts over their implementation.

“Governments, one after another, prepare new foreign policy reports but we hardly see them serious about implementing the recommendations,” said former foreign secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai.

After the restoration of democracy in 1990, several governments formed around half-a-dozen committees to draft foreign policy and these committees submitted their reports to the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

In 1994, a committee headed by then foreign secretary Uddhav Dev Bhatta was formed to submit a report. Then another committee headed by former finance minister and ambassador Badri Prasad Shrestha, who submitted a comprehensive report in 1998-99. After the political change in 2006, the then government led by Girija Prasad Koirala formed a committee headed by then foreign secretary and ambassador Murari Raj Sharma in 2006. Again in 2017, then the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government formed a committee headed by Professor Sridhar Khatri, who submitted a report to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in February 2018.

Similarly, former ambassadors Dinesh Bhattarai, Madhuraman Acharya and Shambhu Ram Simkhada and some others had also prepared and submitted thematic reports to the Foreign Ministry but all these are gathering dust. And in December last year, then Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali unveiled a new foreign policy document after consulting experts. And the incumbent Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka has also vowed to come up with a new foreign policy document.

Talking about the latest foreign policy document, Bhatta, who is one of the coordinators of the new parliamentary sub-committee, said, “Before unveiling the text of the foreign policy document, we had demanded that the document be discussed in parliamentary committee, but then foreign minister Gyawali didn’t heed us.”

“Now the new foreign minister is saying he will first prepare a draft and then bring it to parliament for discussion.”

He said the sub-committee will consult relevant stakeholders and make suggestions to the government. “We expect this exercise to be a meeting point between lawmakers and policymakers,” said Bhatta.

Foreign minister Khadka has flagged several flaws and shortcomings in the foreign policy document unveiled by his predecessor Gyawali. The document broadly talks about Nepal’s engagement with its neighbours, major powers and Nepal’s commitment to multilateral organizations such as the UN and Saarc among others. It has also emphasized economic and track-two diplomacy to resolve bilateral disputes, amend bilateral treaties and collaborate with friendly nations to pursue Nepal’s interests.

While unveiling the document, Gyawali had claimed that it was prepared after consulting various parties including the Nepali Congress and stakeholders and a two-day national symposium on foreign policy organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“It would be better for the parliament to provide specific inputs in thematic areas like what can be done with our relations with India or China or what kind of strategy that Nepal should adopt while accepting foreign aid. It is the responsibility of the government to prepare and execute a policy and it is better for the specialised committees to provide inputs for specific policies otherwise it will only create confusion,” Gyawali had said.

The Khatri-led 16-member panel was mandated to identify the determining factors of Nepal’s foreign policy in the changing global context, reassessing different dimensions of foreign policy and diplomacy and its sectoral policies, including bilateral, sub-regional, regional and multilateral diplomacy, and recommending measures to strengthen coordination and collaboration between Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other sectoral ministries and departments, among others.

According to chairman Kharel, the new sub-committee was formed because Nepal’s foreign policy needs streamlining after an in-depth discussion and brainstorming.

“Several past reports have not been implemented, so our focus should be on implementation instead of forming new committees every time,” said Bhattarai, a former foreign secretary.

But a joint secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office said a longstanding political instability is responsible for non-implementation of the past foreign policy documents. “Governments are not stable and parties have different priorities in foreign policy matters,” the joint secretary said.

Meanwhile, Professor Khatri welcomed the formation of the new sub-committee.

“Parliament can make recommendations to the government on various policy issues but it is up to the executive whether to heed them. But if parliament becomes active, it is good, at least it will generate good debate and discussion,” said Professor Khatri.