Govind Prasad Kusum
E-Kantipur
December 16, 2014
Nepal’s diplomacy must tread a fine line while balancing the respective interests of both India and China.
Nepal is currently in the process of ending the status quo, which will necessarily require socio-economic and political transformation. Despite having a short history of a truly loktantrik polity, Nepal demonstrated its political maturity by managing the decade-long Maoist insurgency. However, it is now confronted with the challenge of balancing diplomacy with its neighbours. And of all the factors that make a nation powerful, the quality of its diplomacy is an especially strong one. That’s the reason, one might say, diplomacy is the brain of national power just as national morale is its soul.
Balancing neighbours is not like maintaining equilibrium between profit and loss, savings and investments, or exports and imports. Our neighbours, India and China, are two emerging world powers and Nepal has the potential to carve out a roadmap of economic prosperity by developing its competitive strengths alongside these two massive economies.
Technological developments and globalisation have drastically changed the ways of doing diplomacy through traditional methods. The traditional conviction recognises an intimate relation between power politics and diplomatic functions. Presently, power politics is guided by economic prosperity and technological development, rather than the vista of military power politics. Both of our neighbours have expressed anxieties over national security interests that need to be addressed by the Nepali government without any deflation of its policy stating that ‘Nepali soil will not be used against our neighbouring countries’.
Chinese concerns
China is very sensitive to the Tibet issue and does not want to see any anti-China activity being played out on Nepali soil. Following the 1959 uprising and the exile of the Dalai Lama, thousands of Tibetans migrated to Nepal and were settled in 12 different refugee camps set up by the Nepali government. They were issued refugee ID cards and benefited from economic integration. Western countries have long been demanding human rights protection for the Tibetan government-in-exile, whose members are also active in Nepal clandestinely. However, the Tibetan government-in-exile was not formed on Nepali soil. Still, the Chinese government argues that underground activities are carried out by these members in Kathmandu. During bilateral meetings and diplomatic correspondences, this issue is regularly flagged by the Chinese authorities. Nepal, in response, has always assured its commitment to the ‘One China’ policy.
Accordingly, Nepal has prohibited and foiled anti-China activities of Tibetans. While doing so, Nepal came under diplomatic pressure from Western countries, who expressed their apprehension that Nepal was deviating from the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ regarding Tibetan refugees. However, this gentleman’s agreement only assures safe passage for any Tibetans who have crossed the border into Nepal to India and the Tibetan government-in-exile. The subject of ID cards issued by the Nepali authorities is also a significant concern for Chinese authorities. Thus, this has led to diplomatic imbalance for Nepal.
Generally, the Tibetans come into Nepali territory from various entry points along the bordering areas and surrender themselves to nearby police stations. From there, they are brought to the Immigration Department. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) later considers them as refugees and pledges to resettle them in other countries. On the contrary, China argues that since there is little political upheaval or unrest in Tibet, there is no question of considering Tibetans refugees and those who cross the Nepal-China border should be considered criminals and repatriated back to China. However, Nepal has not yet extradited any such person, abiding by the gentleman’s agreement. This, however, is the reason why Beijing has emphasised the signing of an extradition treaty with Kathmandu.
Indian interests
On the other side, while the history of Nepal-India relations goes back many centuries, modern-day diplomacy has suffered several hiccups. Despite some grudges and anti-India sentiments prevailing in sections of Nepali society, present day Track-I and Track-II diplomacy between the countries has been cemented more strongly than ever.
The success of diplomacy requires special importance to two particular aspects—managing security and strengthening the economy in a cohesive manner. Security is a concern for all. As Nepal is more sensitive on managing its internal security, in the same way, India is also delicately aware of activities that it considers as security threats to its territory. It also desires that Nepali soil not be used as a transit point for criminals who hatch plans for the smuggling of fake Indian currency notes, explosives, narcotics, and psychotropic substances. India feels that foreign as well as Indian extremists carry out heinous crimes in India and escape to Nepal. Terrorist game plans on Indian soil can also perturb Nepal enough to keep its internal security stronger. Once terrorists and criminals cross the Indian border and take shelter in Nepal, there is no mechanism in place to monitor their movements. Such a situation is highly dangerous for internal security and demands a need for greater bilateral cooperation in combating all kinds of crimes.
The on-going war against the Islamic State extremsists in Iraq and Syria and the Taliban’s terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan can also have ramifications in our region.
To win the full trust of our friendly countries, matured diplomacy needs to pave the way to the elimination of obstacles in a balanced manner.
Kusum is a former secretary at the Home Ministry
