Biennial event to promote Nepal’s soft power: Gyawali

Kathmandu, February 9

Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali today said the government planned to promote the biennial Sgarmatha Sambaad as soft power of Nepal’s diplomacy.

The first iteration of Sgarmatha Sambaad, a multi-stakeholder, permanent global dialogue forum initiated by the government is planned to be held in Kathmandu from April 2 to 4 under the theme ‘Climate Change, Mountains and the Future of Humanity’.

Addressing ‘Sagarmatha National Sambaad’ organised here to stimulate national-level dialogue in the run-up to the Sagarmatha Sambaad, Gyawali said forum would deliberate on the most prominent issues of global, regional and national significance. He said Nepal would also utilise the platform for sharing its experience. According to Minister Gyawali, Nepal did not have many things to share to the global community due to the decade long insurgency, but now Nepal would present its democratic credential to the world through the dialogue.

We have amicably managed conflict, said Gyawali, adding, “Peace has been our core value. It is due to Nepal’s commitment to peace that peace has been an integral part of Nepal’s foreign policy.” Gyawali also said Nepal achieved an impressive economic growth rate of 7.1 percent last fiscal, placing Nepal among top 10 fastest-growing economies in the world. “We now have many things to share to the world,” he said. “We want to take ahead this event as Nepal’s soft power.”

Stating rationale behind adopting the theme of climate change for the first iteration of the event, Gyawali said Nepal was bearing the brunt of climate change despite the fact that it had negligible contribution to green-house gas emission.

He also said that mostly the climate change agenda was raised by the western world and island counties such as Maldives, but Himalayan states which faced equal threat lagged behind.

“This is why Sagarmatha Sambaad wants to create a link to ensure collaboration between highland and island states,” he said.