Prime Minister Balen Shah to Hold One-on-One Meetings with Foreign Envoys

Kathmandu. Prime Minister Balendra (Balen) Shah is scheduled to hold meetings with heads of foreign diplomatic missions. After meeting all of them collectively once, he has now started meeting them individually. Previously, Prime Minister Balen had refused to meet foreign ambassadors separately. From Monday, he will be meeting ambassadors of various countries separately. The meeting with Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava is scheduled to be the first. According to sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after meeting Indian Ambassador Srivastava on Monday morning, Prime Minister Balen plans to meet Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chang Mao Ming, and then ambassadors from America and others. After being appointed Prime Minister on Chaitra 13, ambassadors had sought time to congratulate and extend best wishes to Balen. However, without meeting anyone, he held a collective meeting with ambassadors from all countries on Chaitra 25. During that time, he also provided information about Nepal's foreign policy through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ambassadors and heads of missions from India, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, Qatar, Switzerland, France, Israel, Japan, Bangladesh, Germany, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, China, the United States of America, and the United Nations were present at the collective meeting. After that, on Jestha 12, he held a collective meeting with non-resident ambassadors and mission heads from European Union (EU) member countries in Nepal. Even after meeting in groups, the ambassadors had tried to meet Prime Minister Balen separately. However, he had not given time for such meetings. He had also refused to meet high-level diplomats coming from abroad. Prime Minister Balen had not granted audiences to special guests from America and China. After Prime Minister Balen refused to meet, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri postponed his visit. There were suggestions from many quarters that Prime Minister Balen should meet people from the diplomatic sector. Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal had also made many attempts for meetings and visits, but Prime Minister Balen had directly refused. Due to Prime Minister Balen, Nepal's international relations were becoming strained. To manage this, National Independent Party President Rabi Lamichhane and Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal became active themselves. In the meantime, President Lamichhane has completed a five-day visit to India. Foreign Minister Khanal has visited India and China. President Lamichhane is preparing to visit China. Prime Minister Balen was supposed to attend the United Nations General Assembly to be held in America, but since he is not going, Foreign Minister Khanal is preparing to go himself. Prime Minister Balen has received invitations for visits from India and China, but so far he has not made up his mind to go on foreign visits. From tomorrow, he is starting meetings with ambassadors. It is expected that after these meetings, an environment will be created for him to go on foreign visits.