Foreign policy should be in favour of national interest: Khanal

By TRN Online, Kathmandu, July 29: Foreign Department head of the CPN (Unified Socialist) Jhalanath Khanal has said that national interest should be kept at the centre while implementing the country’s foreign policy and maintaining Nepal’s relations with neighbours and friendly nations.

“As defined by the constitution, our foreign policy should be based on the UN Charter, the principle of non-alignment, Panchasheel, international law and global peace and harmony,” Khanal told a delegation of the Foreign Department of Socialist Press Organisation Nepal (SPON) at his residence, Dallu on Thursday.

Khanal, who was a Cabinet minister of an interim government formed after the 1990 political change, recalled that former prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was able to stop the construction of illegal structures on Nepali territory in course of building the Tanakpur Barrage.

“Former PMs Tanka Prasad Acharya, BP Koirala, Kirtinidhi Bista and Manmohan Adhikari had successfully conducted foreign policy in favour of national interest but in the subsequent years, it was not executed in such a way,” he said.

He also expressed reservation over his party’s poor handling of the Citizenship Act. “Its content was not properly discussed in the party,” he said.

Socialist Press Organisation Foreign Department Head Ritu Raj Subedi said that the CPN (US)’s representatives in the government had failed to effectively deal with geopolitical issues in the favour of the country.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed the subjects such as Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and State Partnership Programme, EPG Report and the recently endorsed Citizenship Act.

The delegation, led by SPON general secretary Bhupa Raj Khadka, comprised its Foreign Department members Shyam Rimal and Parmeshwar Devkota.