Second Impression:

As would be evident from Ambassador Lummaux's statements made in the interview ( somewhere printed in this issue for the readers benefit) with a professional colleague Mr. Mohan Bir Thapa a year ago, the last Prime minister to visit France at the official level was Jung Bahadur Rana. Since then, most surprisingly, none of the Nepalese Prime ministers either has summarily not been invited by France or at best if some tried, for example , dangerous internal conspiracies aborted the visit to that powerful European country.

Poor Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was for one who tried his luck as Nepal's Prime minister to visit France, but his fellow colleagues pulled him from his chair and thus the trip of Nepal's Premier to France yet remains in a limbo.( Look separate box for the interview-NPU).

Bhattarai's wish to have an aerial survey of the world famous Parisian beauty through the kind courtesy of Eiffel Tower remained a far cry. More so, the unmarried bachelor's internal desire to closely watch the Parisian damsels loitering around the Pegaulle street at an unofficial level apparently went to the dogs. Just imagine, had he been successful in accomplishing this aborted Paris trip, what interesting stories he would have divulged to the Nepali media. The media here would have loved to print his "adventures" seen and unseen made in the French capital. I feel really sorry for Ms.Amita Kapali whose dream to watch for herself the land of Napoleon, 'the hero from Corsica', and later that of Charles De Gaulle remained a dream only. Take it easy Ms. Kapali as Bhattarai appears intensifying his crusade in dislodging his rival much in the same way as he was treated by Koirala. Nothing to panic. As Nepalese politics is full of conspiracies so what could be best suggested to former Prime minister Bhattarai is to engineer a similar plan which not only pulls the incumbent Prime minister from his coveted seat but rather facilitates his grand re-entry into Singhdurbar-a place where most of the competent or even duffer politicians wish to step in for obvious reasons.

May I request Your Excellency to assess Nepal-France relations established almost a half century ago?

H.E.Lummaux: Diplomatic relation between Nepal and France were established in 1949 but, as you know, the links between our two countries are much older. Let me only mention the official visit of Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana made to France in 1850. The last fifty years have been marked by growing friendship and by the strengthening of our relations in diverse fields. I would like to recall the state visit to France by late King Mahendra in October 1966, which led to the opening of residential embassies in Kathmandu and in Paris the year after, the visit of President Mitterand to this country in May 1983 and King Birendra's State visit to my country in September 1994.

How do you evaluate Excellency! French economic cooperation extended to this Himalayan Kingdom?

H.E. Lummaux: France is committed to assist Nepal in its development both on a bilateral basis and through the European Union programs. We have tried to concentrate our cooperation on a few fields, selected in agreement with His Majesty's Government: for example, civil aviation and airport equipment, seismology, rehabilitation and the renovation of historical monuments and temples, social services, food aid and the likes. From the point of view of the French government, all these cooperation projects are implemented in a very satisfactory way.

How your Excellency assess the role of Alliance Francaise in the promotion of literature, art, culture and the language of Nepal and France as well? Your comments please.

H.E.Lummaux: As you are well aware, the Alliance Francaise of Kathmandu was born in April 1994, almost six years ago. It is the only institution of this sort we have in Nepal and my personal assessment is that the Alliance is playing a very important and positive role in developing cultural exchanges between our two countries. It reaches French language to more than one thousand students each year, organizes cultural events like film festivals or even music days, presents also numerous painting exhibitions. Summing up, in all, notably, these different cultural activities the AF always involves Nepalese and the French people so that they can know each others' culture better.

What is your observation of the present state of multi-party democracy in Nepal? What should be done for its strengthening?

H.E.Lummaux: The general elections held a year ago very clearly signaled that multiparty democracy is now strongly rooted in Nepal. The turn out of more than 60%, the fact that a single party has won a majority at the House, the presence also of a strong opposition party, all of this demonstrates that Nepal is a truly democratic country. I have been impressed by the wise and mature manner in which the Nepalese electorate exercised their rights to vote.

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