News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda often beams with his typical smiles when the matter of Nepal-India-China trilateral partnership comes to the fore. Prachanda claims to be the progenitor of this idea. He is the one who first floated the concept of trilateral partnership of three Asian neighbours during his visit to China in 2009. But this idea has never surfaced formally on the table of official diplomatic parley. Even Prachanda, now, does not appear too enthusiastic about this concept. China’s initial response to trilateral mechanism between the three Himalayan neighbours was positive and it enthused Prachanda. China may seek to fit the trilateral cooperation mechanism into its signature project — Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China is keen to enter into South Asia’s huge market for which Nepal could be a gateway and trilateral mechanism would be a better platform. But New Delhi’s retort is lacklustre. India wants to go alone bilaterally and is again...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Leadership is tested in the time of crisis. It is the quality of leadership that steers the nation out of crisis and lead to greater prosperity. Be it domestic turbulences or external threats, the quality of leadership matters. The fate and future of the country and its people rest primarily on the ability, intention and vision of the leadership. It is said that leader is the one who can dream more, think more, see more, do more and give or deliver more than others. Leaders emerge from among the people. As Joseph de Maistre says ‘in a democracy every nation gets the leaders and government they deserve’, people are responsible for having the type of leaders the country gets. Politics is generally taken as a domestic vocation and politicians are required to focus more on internal matters. However, this is not always true. Politics and politicians have equally to do with international relations and foreign affairs. Politics is domestic diplomacy and diplomacy is ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: In the realist school of international relations, power determines the nature of relations between states. In 2005, the United States refused visa to the then chief minister of India’s Gujarat state Narendra Modi ‘suspecting his role in the 2002 Gujrat riot and violation of religious rights’. However, once Bharatiya Janata Party won the parliamentary election in 2014 and Modi was elected India’s popular Prime Minister, Washington rolled out red carpet to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a state guest. Modi’s latest three-day visit from July 21 to 23 roused even greater fanfare — perhaps the grandest one in the history of US-India relations. The tone and tenor with which Modi was received in Washington is the manifestation of greater significance America attaches to India in the present geopolitical scenario. Given the international power shift to Asia with the rise of China, Washington and New Delhi deem necessary to come closer and cooperate in containi...

YUba Nath Lamsal In international relations, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests’. British statesman and Prime Minister Lord Palmerston or John Henry Temple said this more than one and a half century ago while explaining pragmatism in the conduct of foreign policy. This dictum continues to guide countries particularly big powers even today to justify their policy and pursuit in the domain of international politics. The conduct of international relations is akin to domestic politics. Foreign policy is said to be extension of domestic policy. In politics, strangers become bed fellows. Relations between politicians is always guided by partisan interests. Their relationship is often unpredictable and unstable depending upon the situation and context. Similar is with the international relations. Countries adopt their policies and maintain relations with other countries to suit their national interest. The world has never remained standstill bu...

 Yuba Nath Lamsal Ray Dalio, in the book ‘Principles of Changing World Order’ says “no system of government, no economic system, no currency, and no empire lasts forever.”  Empires do not reign forever. The world is constantly changing and evolution is the law of nature. Change is continuous process and it happens in the geopolitics and international politics as well.  Roman, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Japanese, Mongolian, Mugal, Maurya and several other empires, which once appeared invincible, were finally dumped into the heap of history giving rise to new powers. Such is the phenomenon of history. In the similar fashion, the present world order, too, is likely to fall and a new one will replace it.  Trends are already visible to give birth to a new world order. However, uncertainty reigns supreme as to when this will happen and what exactly the new world order would look like. Empire or superpower is the term that symbolises military, economi...