London Conference’s Message

AT a time when Nepal is in dire need of cooperation from the international community to tackle the problem of terrorism and other development needs, the government of the United Kingdom hosted a two-day international conference to look at Nepal’s Maoist terrorists crisis and its economic hardships. The conference participated in by the representatives of Nepal, UK, USA, India, China, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark and Australia and attended by UNDP, UNDPA and World Bank concluded the other day in London. The conference itself speaks of how serious is the international community towards Nepal’s present crisis and how eager they are to support Nepal in its fight against terrorism. Here, credit must go to Nepal’s balanced foreign policy and its friendly image to one and all. In fact, after the recent visit of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to the United Kingdom and the USA, the international community started showing more interest in Nepal’s current crisis brought in by the Maoists terrorists. And the London meet became a common forum to express their common concerns over Nepal’s problem and also slam the terrorists, who are creating havoc in the otherwise peaceful nation and also creating obstacles in the development works. The meet has clearly indicated that Nepal would receive more help from the international community to fight terrorism and carry out development works in the days to come. The decision of the UK government to release a further package of 6.7 million Pound Sterling which would cover projects aimed at short term development and reinforcing Nepal’s development, military and police capacity comes as testimony to this fact. The Nepalese government and the people of Nepal sincerely appreciates this friendly gesture of the British government.

It need not be reiterated that Nepal has developed good relationship with all friendly countries and has been able to achieve adequate support to accelerate the development activities for decades. The support of the international communities in the country’s democratisation process and development endeavors has always been immense. The development infrastructure that the nation prepared in the past would not have been possible in the absence of the support of the friendly countries and the international donor community. And lately when the Maoists terrorists started targeting at the development infrastructures, Nepal’s friends in the international sector stood up and knew they had to do something. Much credit must be given to the British government for hosting the present meet, which has greatly bolstered the confidence of the Nepalese government which has been struggling to eliminate terrorist activities and at the same time initiate development works. The cooperation of such friendly countries and donor agencies and the firm determination of the Nepalese government are sure to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in the country once more.

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