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BOOK REVIEW |
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BOOK REVIEW |
Foreign Affairs The book highlights many
important aspects about Nepal's relations with three South Asian countries By A CORRESPONDENT After the political change of 1950, Nepal started to establish diplomatic relations with different countries of the world including its neighbors in the South Asian region. But there are rarely any good and in depth books or articles published highlighting the different aspects of Nepal's relations with other countries of the region. After the establishment of Institute of Foreign Affairs, the institute has taken certain steps to publish developments during various phases of evolution of Nepal's foreign policy and diplomatic experiences. The organization has already published nine different books since its establishment in 1993 including the two policy study series. In the course of publishing the policy study series, the institute has recently come out with the third series focusing on Nepal's relations with Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Comprising articled contributed by three writers including senior journalists M.R. Josse, Nepal's former deputy permanent representatives to United Nations and frequent writer on Nepal's foreign and geo-strategic issues, Madhukar SJB Rana, well known economist and expert on foreign policy, and Nishchal Nath Pandey, deputy director of the Institute of Foreign Affairs, the book describes the various phases of evolution of Nepal's relations with three South Asian countries. "Dissemination of information on foreign policy related issues being one of the main functions of the Institute, we thought publication of materials dealing with Nepal's bilateral ties with friendly countries would help be in tune with the objectives of the Institute. Nepal has a long and cherished history of close, cordial and cooperative relations with many countries of the world," writes Narayan D. Shrestha, officiating Executive Director of Institute of Foreign Affairs. In his paper dealing with Nepal's relations with Pakistan, M.R. Josse has presented a long history of Nepal-Pakistan relations and its importance in the region. Senior journalist Josse covers historical, political, cultural and economic dimension of Nepal-Pakistan relations. Unlike other straight forward general articles, Josse also focuses his attention on the India factor in the shaping of bilateral relations between the two countries. "Nepal-Pakistan relations, in all its varied manifestation, can not really blossom sans cordial relations between India and Pakistan," writes Josse. " Apart from their often difficult relationship with India, and their mutually close ties with China, Nepal and Pakistan were drawn together politically by the fact that as developing countries form the same geographic region, their people's hopes and aspirations were, and continue to be largely similar." After the establishment of the relations between the two countries in March 29,1960 when the country was under the rule of elected Nepali Congress government led by prime minister late B.P. Koirala, Nepal and Pakistan have always maintained their cordial relations. Josse has highlighted important contribution made by Pakistan offering higher education scholarship to Nepalese students. In another article, Madhukar S.J.B. Rana discusses on Nepal-Bangladesh relations. Rana extensively deals with Nepal-Bangladesh relations focusing on the prospect in future. “This is not an historical paper, but is more about the bilateral results (or its lack of) derived from the major diplomatic initiatives rather than simply drawing on events," writes Rana. Rana also discusses the challenges for Nepal to develop the independent relationship. "The challenge for Nepal is to develop an interdependent relationship for mutual benefit on a sustained basis through innovative, high level diplomatic initiative as well as broad based people to people contacts involving exchange of sports, people, poets and writers, journalists and artists, tourists and the world of academics," writes Rana. The third article deals with Nepal- Sri Lanka relations. In his article, Pandey extensively examines various aspects of Nepal-Sri Lanka relations in a comparative and analytical manner. Pandey also analyzes limited contacts between the two countries in the areas of expansion of trade. "Bound by common affinities and similarities, the centuries old relations between Nepal and Sri Lanka need to be traced in detail for a comprehensive assessment of how and on what basis it could be driven ahead in future," writes Pandey. Institute of Foreign Affairs |
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