Prime Minister Balendra Shah will lead Nepal’s delegation to the UN General Assembly, where he will highlight the scale of the recent disasters in the country.

The decision for Shah to attend the annual UN gathering came amid a growing desire among lawmakers, ministers and leaders of his Rastriya Swatantra Party for him to personally present Nepal’s case before world leaders, according to informed sources.

Following the decision, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal instructed the Foreign Ministry’s United Nations and Chief of Protocol divisions, as well as Nepal’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, to begin preparations for the Shah-led delegation.

“The visit would be short,” said a Foreign Ministry official. “We have started the groundwork for the prime minister-led delegation.” The Prime Minister’s Office has instructed the Foreign Ministry to keep the visit brief and the delegation to a minimum.

“Since the instruction has just been received, it has not yet been decided who will accompany the prime minister,” the official said.

The Cabinet had decided on August 19 to send Khanal to New York to attend the event. But the deadly Bhotekoshi flood of August 26, which caused massive loss of life and affected more than two million people downstream along the Nepal-Tibet border, intensified calls for Shah to attend the Assembly and draw international attention to the growing climate risks facing the Himalayan region.

The formal opening of the 81st session is scheduled for September 8, while the high-level General Debate will begin on September 22. Shah has not made a foreign visit since taking charge as executive head on March 27.

Lawmakers from across the political spectrum on Thursday urged Shah to attend the Assembly and raise Nepal’s concerns over climate change and its growing impact on the Himalayan region.

Manish Jha of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Barshman Pun of the Nepali Communist Party were among those who called on Shah to go to New York.

“Global carbon emissions, climate change and rising global temperatures are increasing disasters in the Himalayan region,” Pun said. “The world is listening to this message today.”

He urged the government to take the issue to international forums, saying Nepal should use the UN platform to seek greater international support and compensation.

“Simply raising this issue from here is not enough. The prime minister should go to the United Nations and other international forums, appeal to the world, assert our rights and demand compensation,” Pun said. “All political parties are united on this issue.”

Shah himself had called for greater international attention to the climate risks facing Nepal while briefing the House of Representatives on Wednesday on the losses caused by the Bhotekoshi disaster and the government’s response.

He urged the international community to recognise the August 26 flood as a warning of the growing risks confronting the Himalayan region.

“Experts have said that the flood in the Bhotekoshi river in Rasuwa was triggered by a massive rockslide in the Himalayas,” Shah said. “The incident is a serious indication that the risks we face are increasing.”

Shah said Nepal needed to make a stronger case to the international community that climate change was driving the disasters and risks it faced.

“Climate change is a global problem,” he said. “Mitigating and managing its impacts is a shared responsibility of the international community.”

Some ministers and RSP leaders have also been advising Shah to attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31), scheduled to be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from November 9 to 20.

His remarks come as search-and-rescue operations continue in the aftermath of the Bhotekoshi disaster, while scientists and climate experts on both sides of the Nepal-China border work to determine what triggered the flood and whether such events could become more frequent.