PM Dahal wrong in saying Nepal has been supporting India’s bid for permanent UNSC seat since 2004

Sujit Mainali / September 23, 2016

Singha Durbar, the central secretariat of the government of Nepal.   Photo: Krish Dulal/Wikipedia

The joint statement issued by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Dahal’s recent India visit mentions that Nepal will support India’s bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

When Nepali mediapersons asked Dahal about this upon his return to Kathmandu, he said:

“Nepal’s position has remained that Nepal and India will have similar positions in international forums in agreed matters. For example, India’s bid for permanent seat in the UN Security Council…we have been supporting India in this since 2004.”

South Asia Check has examined whether Nepal has been supporting India’s bid for permanent seat in the UN Security Council since 2004.

For this, we studied relevant documents in the diplomatic archives. We found no document mentioning that Nepal would support India’s bid for permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

On March 10, 2005, the then foreign minister, Ramesh Nath Pandey, in a speech in Kathmandu said that “His Majesty’s Government is positive on…the need for wider reform and democratization of various UN bodies” (Documents on Nepal’s Relations with India and China- Volume I, AS Bhasin). But he did not mention whether Nepal supports any country’s bid for permanent seat in the UN Security Council or not.

After four months of this speech, Indian Foreign Minister Rao Inderjit Singh visited Nepal in July and sought Nepal’s support in India’s bid for a permanent membership in the UN Security Council during his meeting with vice-chairmen of the council of ministers Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirti Nidhi Bista.

This means Nepal had not made its position on India’s bid for permanent seat in the UN Security Council even in 2005.

Therefore, Prime Minister Dahal is wrong in saying that Nepal has been supporting the Indian bid for permanent seat in the UN Security Council since 2004.

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