Traditionally diplomacy in Nepal, as elsewhere, focused on political relationship among countries. As Nepal came out of its isolation in the 1950s and started establishing diplomatic relations with various countries, and later became member of various regional and international organizations, the main focus of its diplomatic efforts was to ensure that the outside world recognized it as a sovereign, independent state. Nepal emphasized its policy of neutrality, non-alignment and non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations. The Charter of the United Nations, the principles of Pancha Sila, and solidarity with other small, least developed and land-locked developing countries guided its conduct of foreign policy.

While this traditional diplomacy helped secure Nepal’s place in the world as an independent country (and not a part of India-- as some faraway countries perceived), it did little to help build Nepal as an economically prosperous nation. In a highly competitive, globalizing world, our diplomats needed but lacked greater economic literacy, deeper understanding of Nepal’s development needs and prospects, and better negotiating skills in bilateral as well as multilateral forums where issues relevant to development challenges of countries like Nepal were being discussed.

The lack of such knowledge and skills among our diplomats and bureaucrats became obvious when Nepali negotiators repeatedly failed to secure more favourable terms for Nepal in negotiating bilateral agreements with India on the Koshi, Gandak and Mahakali river treaties, as well as in several treaties of trade and transit, which at times brought Nepal to its knees. Compared to many other developing countries, Nepal has also failed to be an influential player on issues of aid, trade and foreign direct investment in favour of countries like Nepal in multilateral development forums like the World Bank, IMF, WTO and UN agencies.

Thus it was high time for Nepal to refocus its diplomacy on economic issues, as so many other countries have done in recent years.  

A major new impetus for Nepal to focus on economic diplomacy relates to the large number of Nepali migrant workers who have started seeking employment abroad. Many of these NRNs work in difficult circumstances, often risking their lives and health, and vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by their employers and middlemen. Assuring their well-being, and more proactively securing better working conditions for Nepali migrant workers, who now number over two million and whose remittances now constitute a backbone of Nepal’s economy, ought to be a top priority for Nepal’s economic diplomacy.  

Failure in Diplomacy

It is unlikely that Nepal will be effective in economic diplomacy, if we are not good enough even in normal, conventional, political diplomacy. A glaring example of Nepal’s incompetence and failure in traditional diplomatic skills is the case of the Bhutanese refugees. For nearly two decades Nepal hosted over 100,000 refugees from Bhutan who were victims of a policy of ethnic cleansing. Many objective international refugee agencies and human rights organizations informally acknowledged this fact, but Nepal was unable to make a persuasive case that would have compelled Bhutan and the international community to admit and act on this fact.

On the contrary, skillful Bhutanese diplomats, with tacit collusion of India, gave Nepali diplomats a run-around, turning the whole affair into endless “technical” discussions and eventually absolving Bhutan of any responsibility. This is perhaps one of the largest and longest lasting cases of “ethnic cleansing” in the 20th century that remained largely out of international media spotlight. It demonstrated an utter failure of Nepal’s diplomacy and a “brilliant success” of the Bhutanese. We should learn some lessons from this experience and shore up Nepal’s diplomatic competence and agility.

Even a casual visit to many of Nepal’s diplomatic missions abroad shows obvious areas for improvement. Many Nepalese embassies look physically shabby and dilapidated, poorly furnished, and inadequately equipped. With some notable exceptions, many of our professional diplomats – and not just the political appointees - have poor language and communications skills, poor IT skills, and a rather unpolished sense of protocol.

Except English and Hindi, very few Nepali diplomats can speak fluently the official languages of their country of assignment. Even in English, not many of our diplomats can give eloquent public speeches or interviews to the media. Even to highly sophisticated audiences, I have heard many Nepali diplomats and bureaucrats repeating simplistic, well-worn clichés like “Nepal is a small, poor, land-locked, least developed country located between India and China – the birth place of Buddha and home to Mount Everest, etc.” Such predictable portrayal is not always very compelling to “sell” or promote Nepal and its interest to the outside world.

We need to invest more in training and grooming a cadre of more polished and sophisticated diplomats who are multi-lingual, who have excellent communication and public speaking skills, who make an effort to understand the culture, the economy and politics of their host countries and who can articulate Nepal’s development challenges with facts and figures, and present the country’s image as a land of great potential, not only of many problems.

Just like we give special allowances for civil servants who work in remote areas, we should give special allowances to Nepali diplomats who are fluent in more than one foreign language. Special facilities and incentives should be given to diplomats who have acquired demonstrable public speaking and IT skills.

We also need to upgrade the physical infrastructure of Nepal’s diplomatic missions to a more presentable level.

I have heard many Nepali Ambassadors complain that they do not get enough budget and staffing to do a good job. While the need for more investment by the Government is clear, an even greater need is for our diplomats to be more creative and innovative in harnessing non-conventional sources of support for their work from the growing Nepali diaspora and from friends of Nepal in many foreign countries.

I have seen, for example, embassies of many Latin American, Caribbean and European countries tapping into the pool of their expatriate compatriots as interns and volunteers to supplement the staffing shortage of their embassies and missions to international organizations. Increasingly, we can find many NRNs in the capital cities of most countries where we have Nepali embassies. We know many Nepali students and even professionals would happily volunteer to help the Nepalese embassies, free of charge, if we reached out to them and offered them a mutually beneficial professional experience.  

I can even imagine the NRN movement helping our embassies with some equipment, if they felt that they can count on the embassies to help the cause of NRNs in a meaningful way.

Selling Nepal Abroad

Economic diplomacy is best carried out through public-private partnership. It was good to note that in developing the economic diplomacy project, MoFA had consulted FNCCI, CNI, NTB and the Chamber of Commerce. With their help, MoFA has identified many areas in which we can try to promote trade, tourism, cultural exchange and attract FDI in areas ranging from agriculture to infrastructure, handicrafts, garments, medicinal herbs to hydro-power and manpower development.

Within the Government, besides MoFA, other ministries such as Finance, Industry and Commerce, Water Resources, Labour and Tourism and the Planning Commission should be involved in developing, implementing and monitoring our performance in economic diplomacy. But MoFA diplomats must be always ready to play the lead role.

To do that effectively, our diplomats must be far more knowledgeable than they are at present on basic facts and figures on the Nepalese economy, Nepal’s sectoral and national development plans, on development indicators such as the Human Development Index and the Millennium Development Goals. Basic documents such as Nepal’s Five Year or other long-term Development Plans, the annual Budget Speech of the Finance Minister, the national Human Development Report as well as global reports such as the World Bank’s annual World Development Report and UNDP’s Human Development Report must be required reading for all our mid-level and senior diplomats.

I have often attended international conferences where Nepali diplomats only present problems and difficulties, whereas foreign experts cite some of Nepal’s commendable progress in reducing child mortality, increasing girls’ education, eradicating or controlling diseases, improving water supply and sanitation, immunization, community forestry etc. To attract international support, Nepali delegates must be able to give examples of Nepal’s successes against great odds, not just plead for help citing our poverty and backwardness. Except for emergency humanitarian aid, why would any donor want to help a country that is good at citing problems but not demonstrating success?
In all of this, the NRN community can be of great help to Nepali diplomats and official delegates. There now are many highly successful, world class Nepali professionals in different fields in quite a few countries. Nepal should be bold enough to use them as our informal Goodwill Ambassadors. Even ordinary Nepali labourers can be our ambassadors by demonstrating how Nepalis are honest, hard-working, friendly and adaptable folks. But our economic diplomacy should help them to lead a life of dignity.

As part of our economic diplomacy, we must stop the begging bowl mentality of seeking charitable help from foreigners. Instead, we should be able to demonstrate, with examples, how investment in Nepal’s development can yield better results than investment elsewhere.  In economic diplomacy, we should also be able to demonstrate how foreign aid, trade or investment can lead to mutual benefits for both parties, not just for Nepal.  

In all of this, the NRN community can be of great help to Nepali diplomats and official delegates. There now are many highly successful, world class Nepali professionals in different fields in quite a few countries. Nepal should be bold enough to use them as our informal Goodwill Ambassadors. Even ordinary Nepali labourers can be our ambassadors by demonstrating how Nepalis are honest, hard-working, friendly and adaptable folks. But our economic diplomacy should help them to lead a life of dignity.

Finally, we cannot project a good image of Nepal abroad, if back home we are mired in conflict, violence, intolerance, and ideological extremism of the kind that has been rejected elsewhere in the world. The foundation of an effective external economic diplomacy rests on our domestic peace and tranquility, respect for human rights, good governance and a vibrant pluralistic democracy.

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Gautam is a former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. Contact: kulgautam@hotmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  www.kulgautam.org

[Source: Nepal News]