Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha today said Nepal has no policy of “locally assimilating or integrating” foreign refugees.

“We cannot accept the principle of local assimilation and local integration,” he said in response to a media query upon arrival from New York, after leading the Nepalese delegation to the 67th UN General Assembly.

On Bhutanese refugees, hesaid Bhutan should repatriate refugees not opting for third country settlement with honour and dignity.

“We have also stressed with Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley that Bhutan should protect the rights of refugees returning to their motherland,” Shrestha said.

He had met Bhutanese Prime Minister Thinley on Tuesday, when both the leaders had agreed to resume the meeting of the Ministerial Joint Commission at the soonest, and to resume dialogue from the point where it had stopped.

The 15th round of the MJC meeting was concluded without finding a solution in 2004. “The Bhutanese side has assured us they will inform about the date of the meeting soon.” Shrestha informed that the SAARC inter-summit has been postponed for February 2013 in Male, Maldives. The meeting was scheduled early next month.

According to him, the Maldives proposed the new date because of growing political developments in the island nation and availability of time among all foreign ministers of SAARC member states. Terming his New York engagements and General Assembly participation “highly successful”, Shrestha said he and his Indian counterpart SM Krishna agreed to hold the second meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission soon. Only one meeting of the Commission was held in 1991. The Indian side has assured they will forward a possible date in a day or two.

“Myself and my counterpart have directed our respective foreign secretaries to fix the date and commence with the groundwork as soon as possible,” Shrestha said.

Published on: 5 October 2012 | The Himalayan Times