![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gemini_Generated_Image_wqqxpqwqqxpqwqqx-scaled.jpeg?resize=640%2C349&ssl=1\")
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Birendra P Mishra<\/strong>, Kathmandu, 19 August. <\/b>Ultimately, Prime Minister Balendra Shah started treading on the same old path of diplomacy by meeting ambassadors individually on August 10, 2026 He met with the Indian and Chinese ambassadors the same day, first the Indian envoy and then the Chinese. Why did the meetings take place the same day and why first with the India envoy and next with Chinese? Perhaps, since India is Nepal\u2019s three sides\u2019 neighbour and China is its only northern neighbour.<\/span><\/p>\n PM Balendra Shah had a joint meeting with Katmandu-based ambassadors on April 9, 2026.Though his decision was highlighted as a departure from the traditional one to one meeting with the ambassadors, it seems that the event was ill conceived, as any new PM prefers to have personal contact at least with those countries\u2019 envoys with whom Nepal has vital relations and with the rest for having close contact. In parliamentary system, it is PM who decides the course diplomatic relations in the best interest of the country, Foreign Minister leads the diplomacy and Foreign Ministry executes it through ambassadors. Nepal has diplomatic relations with 183 countries and only 25 countries have their resident Ambassadors in Nepal, as these countries do not see it necessary to have their embassies in Nepal..<\/p>\n A few months back, the new government has unveiled its national commitment framework holding Nepal as a \u201cbuffer state\u201d that aims to turn it into a \u201cvibrant bridge\u201d between India and China. We have fallen again into the old trap of a diplomatic jargon, ignoring the reality that any bridge helps only the linked sides flourish their economies, as a bridge itself remains a means. Providing different routes to suit China to connect it with India for its trade and strategic purposes can hardly benefit Nepal. We have to concentrate on developing our own economically so that our products can be exported to China and India to balance our trade deficit with these two countries. We should remember that balancing act appears easy but in reality, it is difficult to practise, as to put two legs in two boats looks safe, but if the boats drift from one another the rider will have to fall.<\/p>\n The often quoted saying of Prithvi Narayan Shah \u201cNepal is a yam between two boulders\u201d might have been relevant then, as the mighty Mughal Empire of India was losing its grip over its territories, as the East India Company was expanding its political power by acquiring control over Bengal and Bihar on the one hand and the mighty China was a sleeping lion then, on the other. However, with Tibet we had wars at times. Our subsequent rulers followed suit except the Ranas, who sided with British India to secure its support for continuing their oligarchy. Sadly, even the present dispensation seems to fail to depart from its usual course. It should be realized that Nepal is no longer a yam between two boulders but a growing plant between two big Banyan trees with big branches over shadowing Nepal. Despite its reluctance, it can be dragged into controversy between these two.<\/p>\n We, very often, define our foreign policy by divorcing it from our internal (domestic) policy based on our basic national needs. We often forget that foreign affair and internal affair of any country are inextricably linked in a symbiotic, and blurred relationship, in which domestic policy acts as the foundation for foreign policy. Foreign policy serves to protect national interests, which are defined by internal needs such as economic, security, political stability and territorial integrity. In short, Foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy. These two, with their interdependent nature provide national interests formulation and economic diplomacy for its growth and existence.<\/p>\n Since the days of Prithvi Narayan Shah Nepal is being treated as a \u2018Political Project\u2019 by the rulers. Even the Nepalese intelligentsia always supported the concept to suit its interests. The result is that about six to seven million youths are working abroad as migrant workers and nearly two thousand youths are queued up at Tribhuvan International airport daily to fly as migrant workers. Sadly, the villages in the far western districts are getting emptied as entire families are shifting to India as migrant workers. The fault lies with us, as we never hold the interests of the people as the supreme goal by making Nepal a \u2018people\u2019s project\u2019 while formulating our foreign policy.<\/p>\n It is a truism that China is superior to India in many respects. It is hard for India to compete with China in economic, military, technical advancement and mass production, etc. However even today, China is not easily accessible by road to meet our daily heavy consuming items like petrol, diesel, gas and food grains and sugar, exc. It may take about a decade or more to complete fare weather roads and the distance of seaports are big barriers to our international trade. Moreover, China is an export oriented economy and may have little interest in importing our products significantly to balance our trade deficit with it. Can we afford any more delays in transforming our policy?<\/p>\n On the contrary, the geographic situations with India are different. Our rivers flow southward due to geographic reasons. We easily share our water and hydropower for our benefits. We have both road and rail links up to the Sea for international trade, which also provide easy procurements and transportations of food grains, petroleum products and other items. Hence, the need of the hour is to be realistic and rebuild trust in our relations. Trust can be built if genuine and practical expectations are brought from both sides to settle the chronic issues and then we can be optimistic for the future. We must first of all, understand the genuine grievances and needs of our people and try to meet them. Our leaders must erase the psychological fault line of lacking trust, which has been created by history from their psyche in order to usher in a new golden era of cooperation and mutual trust for the betterment of the peoples.<\/p>\n Professor Birendra Prasad Mishra Ph.D. Former Election Commissioner of Nepal 92\/22, Miteri Marg, Old Baneshwor Birendra P Mishra, Kathmandu, 19 August. Ultimately, Prime Minister Balendra Shah started treading on the same old path of diplomacy by meeting ambassadors individually on August 10, 2026 He met with the Indian and Chinese ambassadors the same day, first the Indian envoy and then the Chinese. Why did the meetings take place the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nepal","category-opinion","category-top-stories-of-madhesh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gemini_Generated_Image_wqqxpqwqqxpqwqqx-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1396&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS11m-1Ep","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6352,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6349\/revisions\/6352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Birendra-Prasad-Mishra.jpg?resize=640%2C531&ssl=1\")
( Rtd. Prof. of Philosophy and former election commissioner of Nepal from 1994 to 2000) e-mail address: mishra_bp@yahoo.comDr.Birendra P Mishra, former election commissioner of Nepal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nTribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
\nhttps:\/\/tribhuvan-university.edu.np\/<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.election.gov.np\/election\/np\/<\/p>\n
\nKathmandu-34, Nepal
\nTelephone No: +977 01 4472260, 4479207<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"