Nepal recalls 11 ambassadors, including from India and US

Kathmandu: Nepal government has recalled ambassadors from 11 countries, including those serving in India and the US and appointed under the Nepali Congress' quota, three months after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' terminated his alliance with the party and joined hands with KP Sharma Oli.

Despite strong reservations from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the government on Thursday recalled these ambassadors, including Nepal’s envoy to India Shankar Sharma, The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported.

This comes ahead of Prime Minister Prachanda's likely visit to New Delhi on Sunday to witness Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony.

Such a move sends a very undiplomatic message, multiple foreign ministry officials told the newspaper.

Foreign Minister Shrestha had reportedly been opposing the proposal to recall ambassadors appointed in the quota for the Nepali Congress and other parties, but Prime Minister Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman Oli unilaterally decided to recall the ambassadors, a minister told the paper.

Foreign Minister Shrestha reportedly told both Dahal and Oli not to recall all 11 envoys because the performance of some of them was good, the minister said. Dahal and Oli are learnt to have pressured Shrestha to accept the move which was later decided by the Cabinet.

The decision was supposed to come from the foreign ministry but the Cabinet had endorsed it without much discussion. Shrestha opposed the decision in the Cabinet meeting too, sources said.

The recalled ambassadors are Sharma (India), Sridhar Khatri (USA), Gyan Chandra Acharya (United Kingdom) and Jyoti Pyakurel Bhandari (South Korea). They were appointed in the quotas allotted to the Nepali Congress when the party president Sher Bahadur Deuba headed the government in 2021. Sharma, Acharya and Khatri were recommended ambassadors in October, 2021.

Other ambassadors whose terms were cut short are Naresh Bikram Dhakal (Qatar), Nawaraj Subedi (Saudi Arabia), Sharmila Parajuli Dhakal (Spain), Ram Swartha Ray Yadav (Denmark), Kanta Rizal (Israel), Dilliraj Poudel (Malaysia) and Salin Nepal (Portugal).

Dhakal, Rizal and Nepal were also appointed in the Congress quota before the party left the Dahal-led government in March. Subedi and Yadav were recommended by the Janata Samajbadi Party. Dhakal was appointed in the quota for the Prachanda-led CPN (Maoist Centre) but her influence in the party was weak, sources claimed. Poudel was appointed in the quota for the CPN (Unified Socialist) but he failed to build a cordial relationship with Minister for Labour D P Aryal.

The envoys have been given three to four weeks to return, according to a minister.