Minister Shrestha said the diplomats conveyed their concerns to Nepal as per the policy of their respective countries. [break]“It is a matter of individual countries on how do they convey their interests and concerns. We have not taken their concerns as diplomatic pressure,” he told reporters at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) before leaving for Iran on Monday morning.
His remarks come at a time when western diplomats including from the US had reportedly put diplomatic pressure on Nepal not to participate in the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Iran. “Nepal is committed to uphold its independent foreign policy,” he said, arguing that the final decision on the visit rested on Nepal.
Minister Shrestha said that the NAM continues to hold its relevance even after the collapse of former USSR as the objectives set by the NAM in its inception are yet to be achieved. “The world is moving in the direction of becoming multi-polar one. The relevance of NAM has thus further increased,” he said.
Shrestha argued that NAM holds relevance not only for promoting south-south cooperation and fighting for the common problems of global concerns like disarmament and climate change, but also to strengthen the functioning of the United Nations.
While the meeting with Iranian head of the state Mohammad Ahmadinejad and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is already fixed, meetings with other head of the states are also planned on the sideline of the NAM Summit, according to Shrestha.
According to a press statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is scheduled to leave for Iran on Wednesday. He will be leading a 14-member Nepalese delegation to the 16th NAM Summit on August 30-31.
The Summit will be preceded by Ministerial Meeting on August 28-29 and senior officials meeting on August 26-27. A Nepalese delegation led by Foreign Secretary Durga Prasad Bhattarai is already in Tehran to attend the senior officials meeting.
"The summit is expected to discuss wide range of international, regional, bilateral as well as thematic and crosscutting issues of universal concern," foreign ministry statement said.
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