Despite strong reservations from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the government on Thursday recalled ambassadors from 11 countries including India.

Ahead of Prime Minister Pusha Kamal Dahal’s visit to New Delhi on Sunday to witness Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, the government decided to recall Nepal’s envoy to India, Shankar Sharma.

Such a move sends a very undiplomatic message, multiple foreign ministry officials told the Post.

Foreign Minister Shrestha had reportedly been opposing the proposal to recall ambassadors appointed in the quota for the Nepali Congress and other parties, but Prime Minister Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli unilaterally decided to recall the ambassadors, a minister told the Post.

Foreign Minister Shrestha is learnt to have told both Dahal and Oli not to recall all 11 envoys because the performance of some of them was good, the minister said. Dahal and Oli are learnt to have pressured Shrestha to accept the move which was later decided by the Cabinet.

The decision was supposed to come from the foreign ministry but the Cabinet had endorsed it without much discussion. Shrestha opposed the decision in the Cabinet meeting too, sources said.

The recalled ambassadors are Sharma (India), Sridhar Khatri (USA), Gyan Chandra Acharya (United Kingdom) and Jyoti Pyakurel Bhandari (South Korea). They were appointed in the quotas allotted to the Nepali Congress when the party president Sher Bahadur Deuba headed the government in 2021. Sharma, Acharya and Khatri were recommended ambassadors in October, 2021.

Other ambassadors whose terms were cut short are Naresh Bikram Dhakal (Qatar), Nawaraj Subedi (Saudi Arabia), Sharmila Parajuli Dhakal (Spain), Ram Swartha Ray Yadav (Denmark), Kanta Rizal (Israel), Dilliraj Poudel (Malaysia) and Salin Nepal (Portugal).

Dhakal, Rizal and Nepal were also appointed in the Congress quota before the party left the Dahal-led government in March. Subedi and Yadav were recommended by the Janata Samajbadi Party. Dhakal for Spain was appointed in the quota for the CPN (Maosit Centre) but her influence in the party was weak, sources claimed. Poudel was appointed in the quota for the CPN (Unified Socialist) but he failed to build cordial relationship with Minister for Labour DP Aryal.

The envoys have been given three to four weeks to return, according to a minister.