Nepal has sought financial and technical assistance through bilateral and multilateral meetings to support reconstruction after the devastating floods, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said on Wednesday.

Talking to journalists at the Tribhuvan International Airport following his return from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Khanal said Nepal was now pushing beyond emergency relief to ensure the effective mobilisation of climate finance and the Loss and Damage Fund to help reduce the impact of climate-related disasters.

“We have returned from the UN General Assembly under very different circumstances this time,” Khanal said. “We had an opportunity to present Nepal’s historic political change, the policies and programmes of the current government, the aspirations of Nepali citizens for prosperity and good governance, and Nepal’s position on major global issues.”

He said the recent Bhotekoshi floods, which Nepal has described as a “Himalayan tsunami”, had underscored the need to give climate justice a higher priority on the global agenda.

“Prime Minister Balendra Shah effectively presented Nepal’s key national interests, including climate justice, in his address,” Khanal said. “His call to simplify and ease access to resources through climate financing mechanisms, including the Loss and Damage Fund, and to translate climate justice into practice, was important.”

Khanal said Nepal had also taken part in high-level meetings, events and bilateral talks while keeping the country’s foreign policy and national interests at the centre of its engagement.

“On behalf of Nepal and the Nepali people, we expressed our gratitude to neighbouring friendly countries and the international community for their contributions to the search, rescue, relief and support efforts following the Bhotekoshi floods, while also seeking additional assistance for reconstruction,” he said.

Khanal said Shah’s address to the General Assembly, along with Nepal’s participation and discussions at various multilateral meetings, had further strengthened the country’s diplomatic standing. “We sensed a positive response from the international community to Nepal’s proposals and positions,” Khanal said. “This has laid a clear foundation for making Nepal’s diplomacy more effective and stronger in the days ahead and for making a concrete contribution to advancing the national interest.”

Referring to interest in Shah’s speech, Khanal said it had become one of the most watched and closely followed addresses at this year’s General Assembly.

He also thanked the United States and the United Arab Emirates for the financial assistance they announced for flood victims, saying other members of the international community had also shown a positive response towards Nepal’s reconstruction efforts.

During the visit, Nepal established diplomatic relations with three countries, Grenada, Namibia and Senegal, taking the number of countries with which it has formal diplomatic ties to 188. Nepal also signed memorandums of understanding with several countries on visa exemptions for diplomatic and service passport holders.