By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Mar. 18: Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Thursday said that Nepal has unwavering commitment to further strengthening relations with Israel.

He said so while addressing a seminar entitled six decades of Nepal-Israel Relations organised on the occasion of the 60th year of Nepal-Israel diplomatic relationship.

The foreign minister viewed that Nepal's step of recognising Israel as a state in 1960 and having diplomatic relation was a landmark development as Nepal was the first country in the whole of South Asia to have diplomatic relations with Israel and host its diplomatic mission in Kathmandu.

He said the landmark development and the diplomatic relation was the bedrock of the relationship between the two countries, which now encompasses cooperation in different sectors such as agriculture, science and technology, education, tourism, health and employment.

The Minister noted that the cooperation in agriculture under 'learn and earn programme' has benefitted Nepali farmers as it has imparted skills to Nepali farmers to increase agricultural productivity. He also made it a point that the bilateral labour agreement between the two countries has also enhanced opportunities for Nepalis seeking foreign employment.

"I recall with pleasure that Nepal was the first country in the South Asia region to formally recognize the State of Israel by establishing diplomatic relations and hosting Israeli Embassy in Kathmandu. Our relations have continued to flourish over the years. We have continued to cooperate and collaborate on various areas of mutual interests at the bilateral as well as multilateral levels. This milestone in our relationship has inspired us to contemplate and take further step to strengthen and consolidate friendly ties between our two countries and peoples through increased level of engagements and by exploring new avenues of cooperation. I express my confidence that Nepal-Israel relations will continue to strengthen and expand in the days ahead," said foreign minister Gyawali.

The foreign minister expressed thanks to Israel for its support during the 2015 earthquake in Nepal and in course of the present COVID-19 pandemic.

Hanan Goder, Ambassador of Israel to Nepal, pointed at the need to boosting multilateral relations between Nepal and Israel as he said, “Relations between countries stand on two legs: one is this excellent leg of bilateral leg and the second leg is the multilateral leg, which is less famous, less known and has much lower visibility. The multilateral relations take place mainly in the UN building in New York and in the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and sometime in other locations. It is time that both bilateral and multilateral levels are also reflected in the voting pattern of Nepal at the UN as well as other global forums.”

Dr. Anjan Shakya, Ambassador of Nepal to Israel, talked about bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries in the video message sent to the programme which was displayed on the occasion.

Tal Shvartsman, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Israel, presented about the strong cooperation the two countries are having since 1960s to date in major sectors such as agriculture, education and health, among many others.

Dr. Jay Raj Acharya, former ambassador of Nepal to the UN, Arjun Bahadur Thapa, former SAARC general secretary, Prof. Bhim Prasad Shrestha, president of Shalom Club Nepal and Santosh Shah, a media personality also spoke in the programme highlighting Nepal-Israel relations.

The seminar was conducted by the Embassy of Israel together with the Center for Diplomatic Dialogue (CeDiD).