Minister for Foreign Affairs Shisir Khanal will attend the United Nations General Assembly in September after Prime Minister Balendra Shah showed little interest in being a part of the UN's annual session in New York.

Khanal will lead the Nepali delegation and address the General Assembly to be held in September. “The relevant divisions in the Foreign Ministry and Nepal’s Permanent Representatives to the United Nations have been instructed for the preparations,” said a source close to the minister.

The formal opening of the general assembly will take place on September 8, and the high-level General Debate will begin from September 22. Shah has not undertaken any foreign visit ever since taking charge as executive head on March 27, and it is not yet decided what his first foreign trip will be.

Along with preparations for Khanal’s visit, the Foreign Ministry is also weighing the possibility of organising a meeting of the foreign ministerial-level Saarc Council of Ministers on the sidelines of the General Assembly. As the chair of Saarc, it is Nepal’s responsibility to organise such an event on the margins of the General Assembly. However, for the last several years, it has failed to convene due to the rivalry between India and Pakistan.

Nepal has been assuming the chair of Saarc for over a decade, and due to the rivalry between India and Pakistan, the scheduled 19th Saarc Summit has not been held since 2016. “We are weighing the options and informally trying to gauge the mood of both India and Pakistan,” said a senior Foreign Ministry official.

For several years, only member states have been bearing the required budget for the functioning of the Saarc Secretariat, and some meetings of the programming committee at the joint secretary level are being convened. No meetings requiring the presence of officials above the joint secretary level have been held for years.

Nepali prime ministers, in the past, have skipped the UN’s annual session when they had pressing domestic issues. This time there was no such issue for Shah to skip the meeting.

Experts on foreign affairs say that, apart from addressing the session, the General Assembly also provides a platform for multiple bilateral meetings on the margins of the General Assembly. As the international community has immense interest in Nepal and Shah, it was a good opportunity for him to engage in diplomacy, they say.

“I believe he should not lose this opportunity,” said Madhu Raman Acharya, former foreign secretary and Nepal’s permanent representative to the UN. “The prime minister would meet several world leaders and gain firsthand experience of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy during the visit. His address to the General Assembly would focus on government priorities, good governance and attracting investment to Nepal,” said Acharya.

Though the prime minister and his office have not officially declared that the prime minister has imposed a moratorium on visiting any country for at least one year, some leaders of the Rastriya Swatantra Party have claimed that the prime minister will not embark on any foreign visit for one year.