IMAGE VIA RONBX
PRIME MINISTER Shah on Friday recommended ambassadors to thirteen countries, filling posts that in some cases had stood empty since October. Among the nominees are Nischal Nath Pandey, a foreign-policy scholar who heads the Centre for South Asian Studies, for India; Kalyan Raj Sharma, an economist with a doctorate from Fudan University, for China; and Chiran Jung Thapa, a national-security specialist, for the United States. Former army chief Gaurav Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana has been proposed for the United Kingdom.
The recommendations now go to the Parliamentary Hearing Committee. If approved, the government will seek agrément from each host country, after which the president appoints the envoys. The hearing process has already raised questions. In a previous round of nominations, the committee endorsed sixteen of seventeen proposed ambassadors but withheld a decision on Ram Krishna Bhattarai, the nominee for Sri Lanka, after he failed to produce his bachelor’s certificate. Nine complaints were filed against the earlier group of proposed envoys.
The delay in making these nominations has been costly. The Sushila Karki government recalled ambassadors to eleven countries on October 16th, including China, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. The Shah government recalled six more—from India, Australia, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Denmark and South Africa—on April 7th, less than two weeks after taking office. By August, ambassadorial posts in twenty-one countries were vacant or in transition, including missions in Washington, Beijing, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Moscow, Riyadh, Madrid, London and Tokyo.
The practical effect has been a narrowing of Nepal’s diplomatic reach. With no resident ambassadors in key capitals, Kathmandu has relied on chargé d’affaires to handle relations with some of its most important partners, limiting its access to senior officials and its ability to advance political as well as economic and strategic interests. The four-year terms of career diplomats in Austria, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Egypt, Myanmar, Oman and Brazil expired on July 21st; the Cabinet allowed them to continue on an interim basis until replacements are appointed and receive agrément. The government has also decided to close embassies in Brazil, Denmark and South Africa as part of an expenditure review, though none has been formally shut.
The selection process itself has been slow. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an open call for applications on May 28th and received more than 4,400 by the June 5th deadline. After duplicates and incomplete submissions were removed, around 2,700 applications were shortlisted, then narrowed to a few hundred. Disagreements within the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party between Prime Minister Shah and party chair Rabi Lamichhane held up the final list for weeks. A Supreme Court directive to ensure inclusive representation added yet another complexity, as did lobbying by former security chiefs for posts in India, China and the United States. The shortlisted candidates included former army generals Prabhuram Sharma, Rajendra Chhetri, Gaurav Sumsher Rana, Purna Silwal and Binoj Basnyat, though not all survived into the final recommendations.
The thirteen nominees announced on Friday draw on a wider pool than the political appointees of previous governments. Sharu Joshi, proposed for Germany, has spent more than twenty-five years on labour migration and gender equality, including a stint at UN Women. Suresh Kumar Karna, the nominee for Israel, helped launch Nepal’s first mobile wallet and later served as chief operating officer of Nepal Bank Limited. Prapti Sherchan, proposed for Spain, works at the International Finance Corporation on gender inclusion and economic empowerment. Sangam Shrestha, named for South Korea, is a professor at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand who specialises in water security. Manchala Jha, a former commissioner of Nepal’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has been proposed for Sri Lanka.
The exception is the United Kingdom, where Rana’s nomination brings a military figure into a diplomatic post. He led the Nepali Army from 2012 to 2015, overseeing the integration of former Maoist combatants and the military response to the 2015 earthquake. His selection follows arguments within the government that former generals could strengthen military-to-military relations with major powers.
For the three most important missions, the nominees bring regional and functional expertise rather than political weight. Pandey has advised the government on foreign policy and served as executive director of the Institute of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2006. He holds a doctorate in political science from Tribhuvan University and is an honorary associate professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru. Sharma chairs the Nepal-China Friendship Forum and the Council of Sinologists-Nepal, and has taught a course on doing business in China at Kathmandu University. Thapa has two decades of experience in security policy and crisis management, holds a master’s degree from Columbia University, and has advised the Ministry of Defence, the National Security Council, the Nepal Army and Nepal Police.
The recommendations do not cover all twenty-one vacant or transitioning missions. Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal left for New York on Sunday for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, making Friday the last window for Cabinet action before his departure. Officials said the government would recommend ambassadors to only thirteen countries rather than fill all the vacancies at once. Once the hearing committee completes its work and agrément is obtained, the president will formally appoint the envoys.
And for the moment Nepal’s embassies in some of the world’s most consequential capitals continue to be run by officials without ambassadorial rank, a gap that has persisted for nearly a year and shows few signs of closing quickly. ■
