Kosh Raj Koirala

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has started reviewing accreditations of Nepalese ambassadors assigned to different missions abroad.

The MoFA began the review process as per the directive of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha amid realization that the diplomatic assignments of non-resident Nepalese envoys needed a review in view of increased number of Nepalese embassies abroad and geographical proximity of the country concerned.

Chief of Protocol at the MoFA Niranjan Man Singh Basnyat said they are currently reviewing and discussing within the ministry. "We will take a decision after a review of the concurrent accreditations made to our envoys based in various countries," he said.

Officials at the MoFA said the concurrent accreditation of Nepalese envoys have not been reviewed for the past several years. For an instance, Nepalese ambassador to Pakistan continues to be concurrently accredited to Iraq despite the fact that there are now Nepalese embassies in neighboring countries of Iraq such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates.

Shrestha told Republica that the ministry will take a decision to reshuffle the accreditation of Nepalese envoy abroad after Protocol Division comes up with a proposal to this effect. "We will take appropriate decision to help facilitate works of our envoys abroad," he said.

Though Nepal has established diplomatic ties with 133 countries, the country has only 32 diplomatic missions abroad. Nepalese ambassadors assigned to these missions are concurrently accreditated to various other countries as non-resident envoys of Nepal.

Published on: 17 October 2012 | Republica