The United Nations General Assembly is underway in New York, where Prime Minister Balendra Shah is leading Nepal’s delegation. He is scheduled to address the Assembly on September 24.

Shah’s visit is being closely watched. It is his first foreign trip since becoming prime minister, while his address comes less than a month after devastating floods in the Bhotekoshi corridor intensified calls for climate justice. 

Nepal is expected to use the UN platform to highlight the disproportionate impact of climate change on a country that contributes little to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Nepal’s engagement with the General Assembly goes back seven decades. It first took part in the 11th session in 1956, with then foreign minister Chuda Prasad Sharma delivering its first address on November 29.

Since then, Nepal has been represented at the Assembly by kings, presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and senior diplomats. Their speeches have reflected the country’s changing political system as well as its long-standing foreign policy concerns, from non-alignment and the interests of small and landlocked states to peacekeeping, development, climate change and reform of the UN system.

What issues has Nepal raised over the decades, and how have its priorities at the world’s largest multilateral forum changed?

Chuda Prasad Sharma’s first address

Nepal joined the United Nations on December 14, 1955, becoming its 76th member. It participated in the 11th General Assembly the following year, with Sharma delivering the country’s first address on November 29, 1956. The UN’s digital records identify Sharma as Nepal’s speaker at the opening of the general debate that year.

Nepal was then emerging from the Rana regime and establishing a new political order. Sharma used the international platform to explain Nepal’s political transition and outline its foreign policy.

Non-alignment was central to the speech. Nepal said it would not commit itself in advance to any power bloc and would judge international questions on their merits. Sharma also spoke against racial discrimination, imperialism and the establishment of military bases in other countries.

The emphasis reflected Nepal’s position as a small state situated between India and China at a time when the Cold War was shaping international politics.

King Mahendra’s case for the UN as a shield for small states

Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala addressed the 15th General Assembly in 1960, while Tulsi Giri spoke at the 18th session in 1963. King Mahendra addressed a special high-level session in 1967.

For Mahendra, the UN was particularly important to countries such as Nepal because it offered small states a platform in an international system dominated by major powers.

His argument was that the organisation could provide both a practical and moral framework for protecting smaller countries from external pressure and interference.

The theme of small-state security would recur in Nepal’s later UN speeches, as successive governments stressed that international rules should apply to countries regardless of their size or military and economic power.

Girija Prasad Koirala puts SAARC and post-Cold War order in focus

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala addressed the 48th General Assembly on October 13, 1993, following the restoration of multiparty democracy.

He highlighted constitutional guarantees of human rights and fundamental freedoms and spoke of efforts to improve people’s living standards. He also stressed Nepal’s relations with its neighbours and its engagement in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The end of the Cold War was another major theme. Koirala argued that the post-Cold War world required stronger international arrangements to promote peace and development.

The following years saw Nepal repeatedly highlight the difficulties faced by least developed and landlocked countries. Prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Koirala, in their addresses in 1995, 1999 and 2000, respectively, called for greater bilateral and multilateral support for countries facing structural geographical and economic disadvantages.

Nepal also raised UN reform, conflicts in South Asia and the SAARC agenda.

Climate change enters Nepal’s UN agenda

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the first prime minister of republican Nepal, addressed the 63rd General Assembly on September 26, 2008.

His speech focused on Nepal’s peace process, which followed the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the election of the Constituent Assembly. He described the process as an opportunity to transform Nepal into a new federal democratic republic and thanked the UN for its support.

Dahal called for easier access to climate finance to support low-carbon and climate-resilient development. He also urged the international community to implement the loss and damage fund, fulfil the $100 billion climate finance commitment and double adaptation finance.

He highlighted what he described as the injustice facing Nepal, a country with extensive forests and rich biodiversity that contributes little to global greenhouse gas emissions but is highly vulnerable to climate change. Nepal’s high mountains, he said, were particularly exposed to the consequences of a crisis the country had done little to cause.

Dahal warned that melting glaciers and changing weather patterns posed serious risks to Nepal and called for international support to protect the country’s environment. He also linked climate vulnerability with the development challenges facing least developed and landlocked countries.

The issue would become a recurring theme in Nepal’s subsequent UN addresses.

From climate vulnerability to climate justice

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, addressing the 64th General Assembly in 2009, continued to highlight climate change. He warned about the risks posed by glacial lake outburst floods and increasingly destructive flash floods while also discussing Nepal’s peace process and transitional justice.

Baburam Bhattarai, addressing the 66th session, Khil Raj Regmi at the 68th and Sushil Koirala at the 69th, continued to raise the concerns of least developed countries, oppose terrorism and highlight the effects of climate change on mountainous countries.

Regmi also raised the issue of climate justice.

Across these speeches, Nepal continued to emphasise the need to complete the peace process and strengthen the country’s democratic transition.

Constitution, climate and the concerns of LDCs

Sher Bahadur Deuba addressed the 72nd General Assembly in 2017, while KP Sharma Oli addressed the 73rd, 75th and 79th sessions. Dahal returned to the rostrum for the 78th session in 2023.

Their speeches covered several recurring themes: implementation of Nepal’s constitution, opposition to terrorism, climate change and the interests of least developed countries.

Deuba argued that Nepal’s low contribution to global emissions contrasted sharply with the severity of the climate impacts it faced, and called for effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. In his 2017 address, he also stressed the importance of small states and their role in the UN system.

Dahal’s 2023 address, delivered as Nepal was chairing the LDC group, again called for greater climate finance and stronger international action. He said mountainous countries such as Nepal were bearing a severe share of the impacts of climate change and called for easier access to climate finance, early implementation of the loss and damage fund and fulfilment of the $100 billion climate finance commitment.

Oli’s emphasis on multilateralism

Oli’s addresses increasingly placed multilateralism at the centre of Nepal’s international message.

In his 2020 address to the 75th General Assembly, delivered during the Covid-19 pandemic, Oli argued that global challenges such as the pandemic, climate change, inequality and insecurity required stronger international cooperation.

He said multilateral cooperation had suffered from unilateral tendencies and protectionist policies and argued that global interests, rather than narrow national interests, should underpin the rules-based international order.

Oli also repeated Nepal’s argument that its mountains were of global significance and that the country, despite making a negligible contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, was bearing a disproportionate share of the consequences. He called for effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and greater access to climate finance.

He also highlighted the need for international solidarity and recalled UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit to Nepal the previous year, when Guterres had used his visit to draw attention to both the importance of peace and the climate crisis facing the Himalayas.

That combination of multilateralism and climate vulnerability has become one of the most consistent features of Nepal’s recent UN diplomacy.

What will PM Shah say?

Prime Minister Shah, who left for New York on Tuesday, is expected to highlight the impact of climate change on Nepal and press its case for climate justice. 

He will address the 81st General Assembly less than a month after the devastating Bhotekoshi floods, which have renewed calls for greater international support for climate-vulnerable countries.

The General Assembly’s 81st session is being held from September 22 to 28, with climate action among the major issues on the agenda.