At a time when the government is struggling to appoint ambassadors to 17 diplomatic missions, it has decided to extend the terms of six ambassadors who are set to retire at the end of August.

A Cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to extend the terms of the six ambassadors until their successors are appointed, said a senior Foreign Ministry official, adding that all those receiving extensions are career diplomats.

As the ambassadorial appointment process has been delayed and is expected to take months to complete, the decision was taken to prevent more diplomatic missions from falling vacant, the official said.

Already, 17 Nepali missions are without ambassadors, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has invited applications through an open call to fill envoy positions in 13 countries. The ambassadors selected through the competitive process will be appointed under the political quota.

Nepal has 34 diplomatic missions abroad, including three permanent missions to the United Nations. In line with the longstanding practice of appointing ambassadors on a 50:50 basis from the foreign service and the political quota, career diplomats currently serve as ambassadors in half of Nepal’s missions.

The ambassadors whose terms have been extended are Ghanshyam Bhandari (Bangladesh), Bharat Raj Regmi (Austria), Harish Chandra Ghimire (Myanmar), Nirmal Raj Kafle (Brazil), Sushil Lamsal (Egypt), and Tirtharaj Wagle (Bahrain).

To expedite the appointment process, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has already recommended the names of five joint secretaries to the Prime Minister’s Office. But the Prime Minister’s Office has been sitting on the proposal and has shown no interest in recommending them as ambassadors to different countries.

Some missions have remained without ambassadors since October last year. On October 16, the Sushila Karki-led government recalled Nepal’s ambassadors to China, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the US, the UK and Japan. Around a week after assuming office, the Shah government, on April 7, recalled six more ambassadors: Shankar Prasad Sharma (India), Chitralekha Yadav (Australia), Purna Bahadur Nepali (Sri Lanka), Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe (South Korea), Sumnima Tuladhar (Denmark), and Kapil Shrestha (South Africa).

The selection process for new ambassadors, which began about a month and a half ago, has entered its final stage, with the foreign minister expected to make recommendations next week.

Most missions, including those whose ambassadors were recalled by the current government in April, are being run by chargés d'affaires.

Through the budget, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle announced that the government would close the embassies in Denmark, Brazil and South Africa, and shut down the Consulate General offices in San Francisco, the US, and Chengdu, China, along with the embassy branch office in Visakhapatnam, India. The government has already informed the concerned countries of its decision to close the embassies and consulate general offices.

This time, the ministry invited applications through an open competition to fill ambassadorial posts in India, China, the US, the UK, Australia, Israel, South Korea, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Oman and Saudi Arabia, among others, as well as positions at international organisations.