Nepal in Dilemma Over Participation in Indo-Pacific Strategy

Nepal is currently in a dilemma of joining the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy.

As per US reports, Nepal is indeed a part of the defense strategy grouping. In its ‘Indo Pacific Strategy Report’, US stated that Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh agreed to participate in the upcoming events of the strategy.

The strategy has become an issue of debate in the country, which began since Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali visited US in December 2018.

Experts consider Gyawali and Mike Pompeo’s meeting as proof of the supposed shift in Nepal’s foreign policy, which stands for neutrality and non-alignment.

According to a top government official even though US is trying hard to include Nepal in the strategy, the latter is yet to come out clear with its stance.

The suspicion further strengthened after US released its Indo-Pacific Strategy on June 01, 2019.

Heat surrounding the issue heightened when the Himalayan nation said that the Nepal-US relations is all time high and may deepen further. However, there was no mention of the Indo-Pacific strategy.