Nepal's Foreign Policy vis-a-vis India and
China: The Security Imperatives
By Nishchal Nath Pandey
Deputy Executive Director,
Institute of Foreign Affairs
April 9, 2003
Being a small and a landlocked country in between two large neighbors, Nepal has always regarded the proper handling of its foreign policy as being the essential tenet for its survival and being the critical prerequisite for its economic development. Ever since Prithvi Narayan Shah the Great, who unified the nation, all leaders of Nepal have not only realized that a coherent policy towards India and China is a must but moreso were farsighted enough to adjust their policies and strategies according to changing times and altering international and regional developments. As a result, Nepal can boast of having been an independent country throughout history.
Nepal's relations with India possesses political, economic, religious and cultural dimension. "The bilateral relations has been going on in two currents, a visible current and a very basic current, which is not so visible. The visible current sometimes may have ripples going up and down but the invisible current is guided by links of history, geography, culture, community and family relationship. It only proceeds in one direction that is forward". In the midst of this rich array of affiliation that we enjoy, the cultural dimension of our relationship probably could be the most important and the most enduring. Thousands of Nepalese are married in India and vice versa. Furthermore, religious tourism may have existent between the peoples of our two countries long before the world may have known about the whole concept of tourism. While it is customary for every Hindu in Nepal to visit the 4 main religious dhams of Rameshwaram, Dwarika, Jaganath Puri and Badrinath; a darshan of Pashupatinath in Kathmandu is a much desired yearning for Indian political leaders, business tycoons, film stars not to mention the thousands that come from various parts of India each year. The Gods have designed the bond of our two peoples in such a way that a darshan of Kedarnath is supposedly incomplete without the subsequent darshan of Pashupatinath. "During the kingdom of Ratna Malla (around 400 years ago) a pundit from South India called Som Shekharanand was made the chief priest of the temple of Pashupatinath, a tradition still honored by the king and the people of Nepal. In India, the King of Nepal, has been accorded a special position at Jaganath Puri temple where he alone, except for the holy priests, has the exclusive right to enter the innermost sanctuary of Lord Jagannath and offer worship."
The political component of our relations is perhaps the most studied and the most contentious sending ripple effects to the constant ties of friendship and warmth that exist among the people of our two countries, who would have enjoyed open and affectionate interaction despite the formal relations at the government to government level. India-Nepal relations is not the creation of recent times like the India-Pakistan or India-Bangladesh relations. Despite change of governments and even systems, the two countries continue to enjoy a relationship based on goodwill, reciprocity of interest and a spirit of warm togetherness. Hiccups are regular but the propensity to remove obstacles and forge ahead is what counts. Nepal is a multi-party democracy under a highly respected constitutional monarchy and she is determined to continue in this path, which is by far means the only way for a stable and peaceful polity.
"Any problem that arises between two close neighbors like India and Nepal, or any other smaller South Asian country, is usually explained away in terms of India's bigness and its overbearing and big-brotherly behavior. Indo-Nepal relations are obviously unequal relations. The inequalities between the two countries are clearly inbuilt into their respective geographical dimensions, demographic magnitudes, economic resource bases; production structures and growth potentials." Coupled with this feature of inequality, Nepal's rulers and the general public too have always been extra touchy about their independent personality and their sense of nationalism. This pattern holds true for smaller countries all around the world where the only way to hold the people together under one umbrella is to make them conscious about their identity and rouse their nationalistic sentiments.
The political component has for many reasons been the primary issue of friction between our two countries. While, India has always been a major election issue in Nepal, Nepal is not even mentioned during the elections in India. Major political changes in Nepal have each time been the upshot of mishandling of the relations with India may it be the ousting of the Rana rule in 1950, the royal takeover of 1960, or the change of 1990. India has assisted us in the sectors of health, transportation and roads, education, etc. but despite this; an old, outdated mindset that relishes in the concepts of a bygone era hinders from forging ahead without engaging in anti-Indian euphoria that hasn't taken us much far. The area, which has much prospect, is the hydropower sector by the help of which power hungry states of India and the ailing Nepalese economy could both benefit immensely. Unfortunately, India too hasn't shown a big heart in managing technical nitty-gritty and thereby not only setting in motion mutually collaborative projects but at the same time reducing the feeling of animosity and distrust that prevails among the Nepalese. Bilateral trade must be allowed to flourish without hindrances and as both countries gear up to acquire the membership of the WTO, a thorough and comprehensive scrutiny on areas that we collectively need to work upon is clearly the need of the hour.
With the ebb and flow of time however, both may have realized the importance and the inevitability of the other. The new generation of Nepalese is no longer interested to join the bandwagon of those that regard anti-Indianism as being an essential component of "nationalism" in Nepal. Newly appointed Indian ambassador to Nepal Shyam Saran has likewise recently mentioned, "Nepal is not India locked but India open." It is these features of togetherness and support of one another that is slowly evolving which will bring tangible results in the days ahead provided that we keep the momentum going at all levels. Since we are too close, minor irritants keep on erupting back and forth but what is crucial is both to realize that only by mutuality and collaboration that both shall accomplish something. Cooperation in the security realm is yet another critical feature of our bilateral relations, which is coming out to be increasingly important as both the countries, are facing grave threats to their national security. Nepal has time and again said that it will not allow anti-Indian deeds from its soil and has made sincere efforts to curb this clandestine undesired movement of people with ill intentions from Nepal into India.
India has likewise assisted Nepal especially during these times of internal turmoil. It seems that the Government of India has well apprehended the fact that a confused, politically unstable and chaotic Nepal will gravely expose the Indo-Gangetic plains and can be very easily exploited in order to transmit trouble into the Indian heartland or to the already unstable northeast. In the days ahead, a more stable, mutually profitable and collaborative Indo-Nepal relations that appreciates the genuine concerns and interests of one another looks eminent.
With China, Nepal's relations have stood on a firm footing ever since the establishment of bilateral relations. Both during the 30 years of the Panchayat and in the last 12 years of multi-party democracy, Sino-Nepal relations is characterized by remarkable continuity and stability. Bilateral relations is witnessing a positive and encouraging trend due to greater contacts and deeper understanding at different fields. In the fiscal year 2001/2, Nepal imported Rs. 11 billion worth of goods from China, of which goods worth Rs. 5 billion was exported from the Tibet Autonomous Region itself. On the export front, goods worth Rs. 538 million was exported to China of which Rs. 525.4 million was to Tibet. With the opening up of Syafrubesi-Rasuagadhi, an additional road will link Nepal with Tibet. Last year, China placed Nepal as the 9th destination to Chinese tourists and the Nepalese tourism market has been seeing more and more Chinese tourists at a time the industry is struggling due to internal and external causes. At this point, it must be recalled that Nepal is the only country, which has direct air links with Lhasa. Furthermore, as the Chinese are vigorously working towards completing the Lhasa-Gormu railway by 2006, it is additionally hoped that this will have positive impacts to the Nepalese economy. Likewise, during the visit of Their Majesties the King and Queen to China last year, the Chinese expressed support for the Nepalese government's fight against Maoist rebels and its drive to re-attain peace.
Nepal's stability and security is not only for the security and stability of itself but also for guaranteeing that its volatility is not utilized by elements that are either inimical towards India or China. It is in the vested interest of both these Asian giants therefore to make it a point to see and to make all concrete efforts to help Nepal help itself.
Paper presented at a 2 day seminar "Perspectives of Nepal's Foreign Policy" organized by Benaras Hindu University March 3-4, 2003.
Author is Deputy Executive Director of the Katmandu based Institute of Foreign Affairs. He is also a well-known writer on Nepal's conduct of international affairs. He can be contacted through his email nina@ntc.net.np
