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NepalRelations with Other Countries
Nepal has continually sought to establish good
relations and an
identity with the world community. However, because most
countries
recognized the primacy of India's leadership in the
region, Nepal's
continued efforts to expand its international activities,
were of
little use in solving its problems with India.
Nepal's contacts with the oil-rich Arab countries had
increased
in the late 1980s. A number of Nepalese citizens worked in
several
Middle Eastern countries, particularly the United Arab
Emirates and
Kuwait, and remittances from Nepalese nationals were a
source of
hard currency. Nepal was one of the first South Asian
countries to
condemn Iraq's aggression and takeover of Kuwait in August
1990.
Kuwait also was an important source of development aid to
Nepal.
Of the West European countries, the Federal Republic of
Germany
(West Germany) was Nepal's largest donor and, through
1986,
provided more than Rs5.6 billion in economic and technical
assistance for more than forty different projects ranging
from
health programs to hydroelectricity. France also had a
role in
assisting economic development. During the 1990
prodemocracy
movement, France expressed its readiness to write off all
its loans
to Nepal amounting to US$25 million as a gesture of
goodwill. The
Swiss government also indicated its support of the
movement and
that it would probably increase its aid.
Nepal also sought to improve its international status
by
emphasizing its religious connections. In 1983 Nepal
enlisted its
support for the International Lumbini Development Project
to
present Lumbini, the birth place of Siddhartha Gautama,
the Buddha,
as a symbol of peace. Nepal continued to highlight its
role as the
only Hindu kingdom in the world (as stipulated in the
constitution)
by periodically convening the World Hindu Meet. Nepal also
hosted
meetings of The World Fellowship of Buddhists in
Kathmandu.
Data as of September 1991
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