Book Review (Spotlight Weekly)

On Nepal - US Relations

The book highlights the five decade long Nepal-US relations

By A CORRESPONDENT

Nepal and the United States have a long history of cordial bilateral relationship. Nepal continues to receive large scale developmental support from the United States of America.

From grass root level democracy to health sectors and other infrastructure building in Nepal, the United States has played a very important role. Although the US is far away from Nepal, it continues to support Nepal in its quest to achieve economic prosperity and independence.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, US is now a sole superpower with economic and military prowess. So the role of superpower has become much more important for smaller countries like Nepal.

Thanks to the efforts of Institute of Foreign Affairs, a new book, based on the papers and comments of Nepal’s top scholars and former diplomats, has recently been published detailing the history of relations between the two countries.

One of the important aspects of the book is that it tries to bring to focus a long history of Nepal-US relations. In the five decade long course, Nepal did not have any major difference with the US and that the relations were pretty smooth.

“Nepal and the United States of America established the diplomatic relations in April 1947. Prior to that Nepal remained virtually isolated from the outside world and had diplomatic relations only with the United Kingdom. In the diplomatic history, the United States has become the second important country with whom Nepal established its diplomatic relations,” writes Narayan D. Shrestha, officiating Executive Director of the institute.

After the 9/11, Nepal remains a major partner of the US to wage the war against terrorism. As Nepal is also suffering from the Maoist insurgency, material and other support given by US is very much important. In terms of trade, US is a major market for Nepalese garments. Annually, large number of US citizens visit Nepal.

With the opening of Nepalese market, some major US companies have already invested in the hydropower sector. The Bhotekoshi project is one of them.

In their papers, scholars and former diplomats discuss the importance of US and its role in Nepal’s prosperity. Presented by various experts the papers highlight Nepal-US relations, Nepal-US economic relations and the recent trend on US interest in Nepal.

Madhav P. Khanal has focused his paper on U.S. Relations: A Historical Overview. Professor Jay Raj Acharya discusses on USA and South Asia (Before and after 9/11, 2001) and Prasiddha Bahadur Pandey writes article on Nepal – US Economic Relations: Ways to Drive it Forward. Prakash A. Raj also explains on recent trends of US interest in Nepal. Bishwa Pradhan deals with U.S. Relations: Retrospect and Prospect.

“The political relations existing today between Nepal and the USA are to this date characterized by such noble factors that one would expect in any ideal situation,” writes Khanal.

The book could prove to be useful for scholars, students and all those interested to learn about the US-Nepal relations.

Nepal’s Relations with United States of America

Published by: Institute of Foreign Affairs

Price: Undisclosed

ICRC Facilitates Release

Maoists have released thirty-seven security personnel including Chief District Officer (CDO) Sagarmani Parajuli and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rana Bahadur Gautam who they had abducted en masse after the Myagdi attack on March 22.

The released detainees were handed over to the representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) at Thawang VDC of Rolpa district on Tuesday (April 6). They were flown to Kathmandu in the afternoon via helicopters and were handed over by the ICRC to the officials of Home Ministry. The ICRC had been clandestinely negotiating with the Maoists for facilitating the release.

Earlier, the Maoists had said that they will release them only after the government released their central leaders. But afterwards they decided to release them unconditionally. The freshly released security personnel include 33 policemen including DSP, CDO, two soldiers and a civilian.

The ICRC has expressed happiness over the successful completion of release. “We started to take initiatives after we were informed by the Maoist leadership that they want to release them,” said Nicholas Bachmann, communication delegate of ICRC in Kathmandu. We worked to release and bring them after getting green signal from the government, he added.