Addressing a Parliamentary State Affairs Committee (SAC) meeting on Thursday, Secretary Banskota argued that the decision to establish an embassy in a given country should be based strictly on the possibility of trade and commerce with that country. [break]
“A country like ours cannot leave this to politics. Our prime consideration should be trade and commerce while establishing embassies abroad,” he said.
Secretary Banskota said Nepal has embassies in countries like Myanmar, with which there are no trade interactions, or in Canada, which has recently announced it is suspending its aid and also has very few Nepalis there.
Stating that Nepal has purchased land in different countries for the purpose of building its own embassy premises, he said, “It will be good if we work out a masterplan to build our own embassy in such countries in a phasewise manner.”
The SAC meeting called to discuss whether to sell off embassy property in London and buy a new building or renovate the existing one was attended by Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun, Foreign Secretary Durga Prasad Bhattarai, other senior officials of the Foreign Ministry and SAC members. As per rough estimates done a few years ago, it would cost at least 4.5 million pounds sterling to carry out necessary maintenance at the embassy building in London.
While most lawmakers speaking at the meeting argued that the government should provide the necessary expenses for maintaining the property, Finance Minister Pun said the Ministry was not in a position to provide over Rs 10 million for a single embassy. “However, we have been providing small amounts for maintenance purposes depending on the urgency of need,” he said.
Minister Pun also pointed out the need for long-term planning to build or buy embassy premises abroad. "A cabinet meeting held in 2005 had taken a decision to sell off embassy property in London and buy new premises. But the decision appears not to have been implemented because of political changes in Nepal,” he further said.
Based on the suggestions of lawmakers at the meeting, SAC has directed the Foreign Ministry to prepare a detailed plan for buying or building embassy premises and the estimated costs, and the Finance Ministry to release the necessary funds for priority maintenance and construction of embassy premises. Likewise, SAC has directed the Foreign Ministry to carry out valuations of the embassy property in London through international valuators and sell off the property if deemed necessary.
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