Sources said the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) recently put forth the demand with the Nepal government. Nepali officials, however, have conveyed to China that such a decision on the matter would take time as it requires “broader political consensus”.
Sources said the Nepali side has conveyed that the country has a non-political government formed exclusively for holding fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) polls and that only a government led by political parties could take such a decision.[break]
Earlier, India had also been seeking to set up additional consulates in Nepal. The proposal of Indian side has been shelved for long as there could not be consensus among the political parties on the issue.
While India already has its one consulate in Birgunj, another “field office” is operating “illegally” in Biratnagar. Though MoFA wrote twice earlier to Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, the Indian side has not responded on the issue yet.
A cabinet meeting held in February had decided to set up consulates in Guangzhou and Jedhha of Saudi Arabia along with embassies in Bahrain and Oman.
Sources at MoFA said the government plan to set up embassy in Oman has also been delayed as Oman government is yet to give agreemo to Nepal. “Though little late we have already received agreement to set up a residential embassy in Bahrain. But we are yet to get any official response from Oman government on our proposal to set up an embassy,” said an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
The official, however, said the agreemo could have been delayed due to the month-long Ramadan festival.
The decision to establish embassy in Oman and Bahrain was taken in line with the policy of MoFA to set up residential missions where there are more than 5,000 Nepali migrant workers. MoFA had long been making efforts to establish residential missions in Bahrain and Oman as growing number of Nepali migrant workers in these countries had made it difficult for non-resident embassies to deal with problems faced by Nepali migrant workers.
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