Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Gaurab Shumsher Thapa, Nepal Forum of International Relations Studies
Nepal is situated in a geostrategic location between two big and powerful states. Historically, Nepal’s foreign policy has focussed on maintaining a balanced relationship with its neighbours. Modern Nepal’s founder, the late King Prithvi Narayan Shah, once remarked that Nepal was a ‘yam between two boulders’.
Author: Santosh Sharma Poudel, Nepal Institute for Policy Research
The territorial dispute between Nepal and India over Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura regions reignited after Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a road through the area on 8 May 2020. The road leads to Mansarovar, a major Hindu, Buddhist and Jain pilgrimage site in Tibet. During the inauguration, Singh extolled the road’s ‘strategic, religious and trade’ significance. Read more…
Author: Rishi Gupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Amid rising cases of COVID-19 in Nepal, the country is engaged in a diplomatic spat with India over land disputes in the Dharchula region — a tri-junction between Nepal, India and China. The latest dispute began after Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80 kilometre road from Dharchula to Lipulekh in India’s Uttarakhand state. The road will shorten the route for Hindu pilgrims to the sacred Mount Kailash in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Author: Sujeev Shakya, Beed Management
The Nepali government did little to combat COVID-19 when its first case was confirmed on 13 January 2020, viewing it at the time as an isolated problem in China rather than a looming global public health crisis. Nepal was prompted into action only after Europe was hit, followed by the United States. Nepal implemented nationwide lockdowns on 24 March, and further measures were taken following neighbouring India’s response. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened political tensions both domestically and with India, compromising the effectiveness of the public health response to help combat the virus in Nepal. Read more…
Author: Anil Paudel, Right4Children
Nepal’s 2015 Constitution guarantees education as a fundamental right to all citizens, with free and compulsory basic education and free education up to the secondary level. The 2018 Act Relating to Compulsory and Free Education translates the constitutional provision into practice. Education is among Nepal’s top policy priorities — it accounts for around 15 per cent of the annual national budget — but the current system is lagging behind these lofty goals. Read more…
Authors: Rumela Sen, Columbia University and Richard Bownas, University of Northern Colorado
The more things change, the more they stay the same — this rings true for politics and society in Nepal. Former Maoist rebels, along with the moderate Communist Party of Nepal, are now part of the ruling Nepal Communist Party. It was fair to expect that the rebels-turned-rulers would implement some of their radical programs. But little headway has been made on political and social issues. Read more…
Author: Sujeev Shakya, Beed Management
When Nepal’s Prime Minister, KP Sharma Oli, finally made it to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019, it seemed that the communist government was considering opening Nepal for foreign investment. The Nepal Investment Summit was held in March 2019 and a buzz arose in the international media as many foreign investors thought Nepal was now ready for investment.
Author: Anil Sigdel, Nepal Matters for America
After upwards of 80 international trips, Chinese President Xi Jinping finally visited his South Asian neighbour, Nepal. The primary motive behind Xi’s visit was not China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but rather the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy. Despite the United States’ efforts, Nepal is hesitant to endorse the Indo-Pacific strategy. Meanwhile, Nepal signed a memorandum of understanding with China to cooperate on the BRI in 2017, but not a single BRI project has taken off in Nepal.
Author: Rakesh Kumar Meena, Indian Council of World Affairs
The India–Nepal relationship is founded on strong historical, civilisational, cultural, religious, social, trade and economic linkages. The two countries also share an open border built as a result of the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950. Amidst Nepal’s shifting political climate over the last few decades — including the regime recent shift from a constitutional monarchy to a republic — India remains on balance a good neighbour. New Delhi has assisted Nepal during natural disasters by providing economic aid, investment, education and infrastructure. Yet there are a number of challenges to be addressed to reinvigorate relations. Read more…
Author: Sujeev Shakya, Nepal Economic Forum
Nepal is struggling to implement much-needed reforms for rapid economic growth. When Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was sworn in as Prime Minister in March 2018, he was expected to go about delivering ‘Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali’ — a slogan that helped secure his landslide election victory.
Author: Rumela Sen, Columbia University
Ten years ago Nepal became a federal democratic republic when the Maoists gave up armed struggle and signed a comprehensive peace agreement. The subsequent overthrow of the monarch was hailed worldwide as an exemplary case of successful democratic transition. Read more…
Author: Prabir De, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)
On 30 August 2018, the heads of the Bay of Bengal Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries will meet in Kathmandu for the fourth BIMSTEC summit. The last BIMSTEC summit was held in 2014 and a mini-summit was held on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Goa in October 2016. Read more…
Authors: Simrit Kaur and Harpreet Kaur, University of Delhi
With climate change and the associated warmer temperatures already altering the timings and patterns of bird migrations, climate change-induced human migration is not far behind. Estimates suggest that by 2050 there are likely to be between 25 million and 1 billion environmental migrants in the world, with a major proportion of these originating from low and lower-middle income countries. Read more…
Author: Prashant Kumar Singh, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
During Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali’s recent visit to China, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi underlined the importance of Nepal to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), proposing to ‘jointly build a community with a shared future for China and Nepal in the new era’. He suggested that ‘supporting the development of Nepal should become the consensus of China and India’, clearly pointing to China’s enhanced profile in Nepal. Read more…
Author: Rakesh Sood, Observer Research Foundation
No two countries share a more intimate and complex relationship than India and Nepal. India is where Nepalis go to study, find jobs, plan marriages, invest in a second home and undertake pilgrimages. Yet some Nepalis accuse India of interfering in Nepal’s internal affairs and taking Nepal for granted. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Nepal in May 2018 — his third since he became Prime Minister in 2014 — reflects the importance and also the tension in the relationship for both countries. Read more…
