January 18, Kathmandu.
Nepal delegation has joined the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Kampala, Uganda. The core proceedings of the summit have been scheduled for January 19 and 20.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal led a Nepali delegation to Uganda Thursday morning, while a team led by Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud is already participating in the ministerial forums of the summit. Nepal’s Foreign Secretary also attended the secretary-level meetings.
“We never join any military alliance and never accept to be a part of the security pact of any country,” Minister Saud said, speaking to a ministerial meeting.
On January 19, PM Dahal will represent Nepal in a plenary session on ‘Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence’–the central theme of the 19th NAM summit. He is scheduled to return on January 21, but before that he along with delegation heads from other states will attend a state banquet hosted by the President of Uganda. PM Dahal will also meet heads of state, heads of government, and other high-level attendees of the summit, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Founded in 1961, NAM is an international organization consisting of countries which do not want to be officially aligned with or against a power blog. It emerged as a response to the growing polarization in the face of the Cold War. The five-day-long summit is being attended by 120 member states, 18 observer nations, and 10 organizations.
Nepal is a founding member of the movement. However, its ‘non-alignment’ is debated time and again. Nepal’s recent entry into the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) was fiercely debated as a tilt to the military interests of the United States. On the other hand, the growing influence of China in Nepal and its involvement in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is also being criticized.