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NepalInternational and Regional Organizations
Since the early 1950s, Nepal has pursued a calculated
nonaligned policy and has become an active participant in
international organizations. Nepal was admitted to the UN
in 1955.
Prior to its admission, Nepal already was a member of
several
specialized UN agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture
Organization (1951); the United Nations Educational,
Scientific,
and Cultural Organization (1952); the World Health
Organization
(1953); and the Economic Council for Asia and the Far East
(1954).
Kathmandu often voted with the nonaligned group at the UN.
In 1961
Nepal became a member of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF--see Glossary).
Nepal also was a member
of the
Universal Postal Union, the International Civil Aviation
Organization, the International Red Cross, and a host of
other
international organizations.
As a member of the Group of 72, Nepal was a vociferous
champion
for a new international economic order for the equitable
distribution of resources and services between the
developed
countries and the developing world. In 1977 Nepal
motivated its
major foreign aid donors to form an aid-Nepal consortium
to improve
Nepal's ability to coordinate aid projects
(see Foreign Aid
, ch.
3).
Kathmandu tended to use its membership in international
organizations as a forum to articulate its difficulties
with New
Delhi. For example, Nepal's position on the trade and
transit
disputes was aired at IMF and World Bank meetings.
Nevertheless,
most of the time Nepal voted with India in the UN. In 1987
Nepal
enhanced its image in the UN when the General Assembly
decided to
establish a Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament in
South Asia
headquartered at Kathmandu. In June 1988, for the second
time in
twenty years, Nepal was elected to a two-year term as a
nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council. At the
request of
the UN secretary general, Nepal sent observers and troops
to
supervise the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Nepal also participated in various other forums for
lessdeveloped nations. In February 1985, Nepal hosted the
twenty-fourth
session of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee.
Nepal
participated in the thirtieth anniversary commemoration of
the
Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1985
and the
extraordinary meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the
Nonaligned
Countries on Namibia in New Delhi, at which it reiterated
its
support for the Namibian people.
In all the nonaligned summits held since 1961, the
Nepalese
delegation has been led by the king. In these summits,
Nepal
relentlessly has pleaded for the acceptance of peaceful
coexistence
and the right to remain free from military involvement.
Nepal scored a diplomatic victory in 1986 when, by
unanimous
decision, Kathmandu was chosen as the venue for the
permanent
secretariat of SAARC. In 1987 Nepal organized the first
regional
summit of SAARC in Kathmandu in which King Birendra
reaffirmed a
commitment to peace, stability, and regional cooperation.
The
success of this meeting and the conclusion of agreements
to
establish a SAARC food security reserve and to suppress
terrorism
enhanced Nepal's prestige. Although bilateral issues were
not
allowed to be raised in SAARC meetings, Nepal used the
forum to
parley with the smaller states of the region on the basis
of a
commonality of fear of Indian preeminence.
* * *
Scholarship on contemporary political developments in
Nepal is
limited. Although outdated, Leo E. Rose and John T.
Scholz's
Nepal: Profile of a Himalayan Kingdom; Leo E. Rose
and
Margaret W. Fisher's The Politics of Nepal;
Frederick H.
Gaige's Regionalism and National Unity in Nepal;
and
Rishikesh Shaha's Nepali Politics remain
outstanding
contributions on the subject. On recent political
developments in
Nepal, Rishikesh Shaha's Politics in Nepal,
1980-1990 is an
eminently readable account. The chapter on Nepal in Craig
Baxter et
al.'s Government and Politics in South Asia is
useful in
providing a regional perspective. Roop Singh Baraith's
Transit
Politics in South Asia and Parmanand's The Nepali
Congress
since Its Inception are useful collateral works. The
Hoover
Institution's Yearbook on International Communist
Affairs
covers activities of the Nepalese communists.
The complete text with amendments of the Nepali
constitutions
can be found in Albert P. Blaustein and Gisbert H. Flanz's
Constitutions of the Countries of the World.
Although
Nepal's administrative structure is in transition, Hem
Narayan
Agrawal's The Administrative System of Nepal and
Rishikesh
Shaha's Essays in the Practice of Government in
Nepal are
basic resources. On human rights issues, Amnesty
International's
Annual Report and special reports as well as Asia
Watch's
special reports on Nepal are extremely useful.
There is no comprehensive up-to-date work on Nepal's
international relations and foreign policy. Leo E. Rose's
Nepal:
Strategy for Survival and S.D. Muni's Foreign
Policy of
Nepal are notable works. Of the several works on
bilateral
relations, the following are useful: Ramakant's
Nepal-China and
India; Shankar Kumar Jha's Indo-Nepal
Relations; T.R.
Ghoble's China-Nepal Relations and India; and
Rabindra K.
Das's Nepal and Its Neighbors. For reportage on
Nepalese
politics and international affairs, weekly reports in the
Far
Eastern Economic Review and its Asia Yearbook,
annual
essays on Nepal in Asian Survey, and Europa
World Year
Book are good sources. More detailed daily chronicles
can be
found in the Joint Publications Research Service's JPRS
Report:
Near East and South Asia; and the Asian
Recorder. (For
further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of September 1991
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