“King Birendra had established himself as a distinct personality amongst the leading world counterparts. of his time, especially through the Non-Aligned Summits and SAARC community of nations coupled with his numerous bilateral and multinational visits on different times. They included, among many, state visits to many countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, France, the former Soviet Union, Thailand and so on.”
-From the article.
___________________________________________________________________________
Nir Bahadur Karki
Writer/Analyst
and
Former Senior Bureaucrat, Nepal
Abstract:
This article makes an effort to highlight the importance and impact of high level leaders’ visit of Nepal to different countries, tracing from the region of the first Rana Prime minister Junga Bahadur Rana to the recent past. The visits to foreign lands with the passage of time that dates back to 172 years as it started with his official visit in 1850 to Great Britain and countries enroute latter followed by another Rana premier of the same dynasty Chandra Sumsher in 1908 with Sher Bahadur Deuba as a first post Rana premier to pay an official visit to the UK in 1996.
King Mahendra’s and King Birendra’s many multilateral and bilateral visits to many Asian, European and American counties during their reign heralded Nepal’s exposures abroad more than what was before though the former is labelled as snatcher of power placing democracy in uncertainty. Almost of all those visits were reciprocated by their counterparts during their respective reign. Though the post emergence of democratic era, Nepal’s leaders are paying quite a few visits abroad but those visits are not reciprocated by their counterparts as a result of Nepal’s ineffective diplomacy while managing Nepal’s foreign policies. This article concludes with conviction that the external trips of leaders must be reciprocated by the leaders of same stature of other countries which needs to be coupled with result bearing agenda for mutual benefit of the guest receiving and guest sending countries that require skilled diplomacy among the actors involved in Nepal’s foreign relations. One sided visit hardly yield any fruit to the country in boosting her image abroad as has been the case in Nepal during last two decades.
The visits of high-ranking dignitaries abroad occupy a place of importance for the host country in determining the nature, manner and success of bilateral relationship which also influence multilateral relations for both receiving and sending countries.
This is achieved through courtesy based diplomatic dialogue with immediate and long term agenda among the concerned counterparts both in time of normalcy and hostility among the nations.
The high-level visits to foreign lands, therefore, serve as the key country no matter big or small in shape and size, rich or poor in economic or strength.
Mutual Benefits:
Seemingly from a mere ritualistic to a strategic political, economic and defense point of view, arranging the visits for the leaders from abroad to the host country and officials overseas visits for the leaders constitutes an integral part of the work of Ministry of Foreign Affairs specially of the Office of the Chief of Protocol and its concerned Division dealing with the host or guest country having preoccupied mind set of mutual benefit to the concerned countries. Such thoughtfully organized Visits of high ranking leaders present the host country greater benefits to the nations since long time to date. With few exceptions, this applies universally in maintaining relations among the community of nations.
Importance:
A World War Second hero former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once had remarked that the benefit to be acquired by a visit of his country’s queen to a foreign country would equal to the benefits of 10 ministers visit. By 2018 the late queen Elizabeth second of the United Kingdom, the world’s longest reigning monarch had paid state visits to 116 countries of her a total of 265 official visits including repeated trips to few countries including Nepal twice and herself had hosted to her 113 counterparts from the foreign lands that included the late king Mahendra and Birendra of Nepal (Sunday Times, 2018).
Had Mao Tse Tung visited the United States of America in the early 1950s of immediate past century, as he had initially desired, not only the relation between the United States and China but also the course of communism would have taken another direction (Khadka, 2008). Though not Mao Tse Tung to the US but the then US president Richard Nixon paid an arousing official visit to China in 1972 that had been hailed as a hall mark and a diplomatic triumph of both Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the contemporary American foreign affairs.
Obviously visits by high ranking dignitaries to other countries of authoritative dialogue better results to a country as the degree of achievement is determined by the level of authoritative dialogue and diplomatic skills. This is important not only for the political, diplomatic and defense purpose, but also for economic, trade and commercial and cultural cooperation amongst the countries.
Nepal’s Context:
Visits by the Nepalese leaders to other counties can be traced from the period of isolation to modernization and from the autocratic to the democratic emergence i. e from the Rana regime to the modern era.
What it suggests is that even during the hereditary Rana Regime, official visits to other countries took place though on a limited. It started with the trip of the first Rana Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana in 1850 to Great Britain- the then world power. This was followed by the visit of another prime minister of the same dynasty- Chandra Shumsher Rana in 1908.
The post-Rana period naturally witnessed higher frequencies of visits, both by the Nepalese leaders abroad as well as return visits by the foreign dignitaries to Nepal However, the visits by foreign dignitaries have been far less, especially during the past two decades. The visit of Jung Bahadur Rana to the UK benefitted to the host country more than to Nepal since Rana helped Britain by sending the Gorkha Army to quell the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 launched against the East India Company rule in India. Of course his visit played an instrumental role since Rana succeeded in regaining the four Terai districts of Western Nepal namely, Kanchanpur, Kailali, Banke and Bardia that constitutes 22 percent of Nepal’s current agricultural products which were lost under the unjustified Sugauli Treaty. Sher Bahadur Deuba is the first post Rana regime premier to pay an official visit to Great Britain in 1996 at the invitation of Prime Minister John Major’s tenure.
Tanka Prasad Acharya was the first premier to pay an official visit to the People’s Republic of China and Japan in the mid 1950s. No other premier of Nepal made an official visit to foreign countries during 1950s.
The sudden dismissal of Matrika Prasad Koirala as prime minister barred him from leading a Nepali delegation to the first-ever held Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung of Indonesia (the predecessor of the Non-Aligned Movement), which was Nepal’s first participation in an international forum in 1955. Had Koirala been there as leader of Nepalese delegation also, that would not have been his bilateral visit to Indonesia, but just for an international event. A top-ranking bureaucrat-cum-diplomat Shobhag Jung Thapa led the Nepalese delegation instead. That event earned to Nepal good name and fame amongst the community of nations especially among the Afro-Asian countries. It got furthered following the Belgrade Summit of Non-Aligned Movement in September 1961, which was led by the late King Mahendra.
Acharya’s suite was followed by the first elected Prime Minister B.
P. Koirala to China, and his other official trips took place to India and Israel. Koirala also led the Nepalese delegation to the UN General Assembly in 1960 in response to the UN call to send a high level delegation under the leadership of either head of state or head of the government to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of this world organization in October 1945, right after the end of the World War second.
While the official visit to India and China by a Nepalese premier has been a ritual but construed as a gesture of close ties with them which has been a common feature after 1960s to date with a few exception, same to other countries is of additional importance depending upon the stature of the Premier both within and outside the country situation both in nepal and inviting or host countries.
Sher Bahadur Deuba had has the highest frequency of official visits to the foreign countries among the Nepalese Premiers as he is the first post-Rana premier to pay an official visit to United Kingdom at the invitation of his then British counterpart john Major in 1996. During his non-premier period also he is reported frequently visiting quite a few countries as the guest of host countries government like Australia, China, Japan and European countries. Not all of those counties visited by Deuba were reciprocated by his counterparts’ visit to Nepal though the president of China Jiang Zemin, the President of Germany, had official Visits to Nepal during Deuba’s period of premiership.
Though blamed for putting democracy in peril on the domestic front, king Mahendra had high frequency of state visits to the foreign lands. He was one of the architects of Modern Nepal’s foreign policy that heralded rising image and profile of Nepal in international front, bilaterally and multilaterally. He led the Nepalese delegations to the nonaligned summits from the first to the third-in Belgrade, the capital city of then Yugoslavia, Cairo and Lusaka in 1961, 1965 and in 1970, respectively. He also paid many bilateral state visits including twice to the United States in 1960 and in 1967, United Kingdom in 1960, Federal Germany, Russia, France, Japan, Egypt, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, of course India and China and many other countries with state honor. Most of his visits abroad were reciprocated by his counterparts” visits to Nepal.
King Birendra had established himself as a distinct personality amongst the leading world counterparts. of his time, especially through the Non-Aligned Summits and SAARC community of nations coupled with his numerous bilateral and multinational visits on different times. They included, among many, state visits to many countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, France, the former Soviet Union, Thailand and so on. And even more so to India that ranged from state visits to religious visits at the host’s invitation, and to China 10 times that included state, official and non-official visits ,including in transit to and from other countries but with state honors. Those visits were followed by reciprocity of sizable visits by the foreign heads of the states to Nepal.
The kings’ bilateral and multilateral visits were significantly reciprocated by their counterparts to Nepal that included, amongst others, the Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain in 1961 and 1986 at the invitation of king Mahendra and king Birendra respectively, the vice-president of the United States in 1969, German president Henry Lubke in 1967, Yugoslavian president Marshal Joshef Tito, President of China, India, Russia and many more. The post 1990’s witnessed no remarkable visits from abroad to Nepal except the visit of prime minister of Japan in August which reportedly was well ushered by the then Nepalese ambassador to Japan Kedar Bhakta Mathema from his end, also another significant visit to Nepal included that of the US secretary of state and the UK’ foreign secretary. Nepal could not avail any opportunity to host high level dignitaries even from her neighbouring countries during the period.
Late king Mahendra had addressed the joint session of the US Congress House of Representatives and the Senate during his first state visit to the United State in 1960 and also had addressed to the UN General Assembly during the second state visit in 1967.
Late King Birendra was invited by the UN to address an international Conference of the Least Developed Nations in France in 1981 and by China to address another international gathering. Also he was made the Guest of Honor by India on the occasion of their Republican Day.
These few events obviously display how Nepal’s leaders were honored abroad in the past.
The incumbent Indian premier Narendra Modi was an ice-breaker by visiting Nepal for both bilateral and regional purpose after I.K Gujral’s visit to Nepal in the mid 1990s. Though Atal Bihari Vaipaie was in Nepal to attend the 11th SAARC Summit, it was not his bilateral visit to Nepal.
In a similar manner, the state visit of India’s President R.K. Narayan during King Birendra’s reign was not followed by any of his successors except the visit of Pranab Mukharji after many years. The case remained same with Nepal’s northern neighbor China. The state visit paid by China’s President Xi Chining was an event that took place after 23 years of same level visit by president Jiang Zemin in December 1996. However, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had paid a one-day hectic visit to Nepal in 2012.
Finally, the visits of top Nepalese officials and high level leaders abroad must be organized with equal dignity between the host and the guest countries in order to promote mutual cooperation in economic, social and cultural fields among all the friendly countries, including the neighbouring countries.
End text.
References:
Khadka, Narayan Bahadur, 2008
(An article in Newspaper and personal conversation, Kathmandu)
The Sunday Times’ Culture, a weekly Publication of The Sunday Times, July 2018, London
Wikipedia 2019.
Website of the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, Government of Nepal 2017.
# Text courtesy: The Association of Former Career Ambassadors of Nepal ( AFCAN), Volume 3, 2022.
# Thanks the entire Editorial team of the AFCAN and the distinguished author: Upadhyaya. N. P.