The Parliamentary Hearing Committee (PHC) today unanimously approved four ambassadorial candidates including:

• Nilambar Acharya — Nepal Ambassador to India
• Uday Raj Pandey — Nepal Ambassador to Malaysia
• Krishna Dhakal — Nepal Ambassador to United Arab
• Anjan Shakya — Nepal Ambassador to Israel.

The Nepal Government nominated these ambassadors on November 11, 2018.

According to Parliament Deputy Spokesperson Kesab AryaL, the four nominees were endorsed after a six-hour hearing!

As per the procedure, Nepal Government will now write letters to the respective countries governments seeking ‘agreemo’ for the aforementioned nominees. Post approval, Nepal President shall appoint the nominees as ambassadors.

What the Ambassadorial Nominees Said?
Ambassadorial nominee to India Nilambar Acharya said that he felt he was the right candidate for the role as he was a mature individual with adequate political experience.

“Nepal and India have long and historical relations. The relations are at a critical turning point and we need to work hard to improve them,” he added.

As part of the hearing Panel member and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Yogesh Bhattarai remarked that if Acharya was appointed, he would have to remember that Nepal’s Ambassador to New Delhi was like Nepal’s Ambassador to Beijing and vice-versa.

“So, you need to strike a balance between India and China on certain issues,” Bhattarai added.

Acharya assured that Nepal’s relationship with China would not effect with relationship with India.

Ambassadorial nominee to Malaysia Uday Raj Pandey said that he would do his best to assist Nepali workers in Malaysia.

“In Malaysia, 90 percent of my work will be related to helping migrant laborers,” Pandey said.

Ambassadorial nominee to UAE Krishna Dhakal,  a career diplomat said that he would use his role to improve Nepal-UAE relations.

Ambassadorial nominee to Israel Anjan Shakya said she would try to bring Israel’s agriculture technology to Nepal.

The PHC panel including Chair Laxman Lal Karna posed multiple questioned to all four candidates regarding their background, interest, work experience and their work plan, as part of the six-hour hearing.

Recently, Nepal received the US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry who was greeted and welcomed by President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

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In the latest Nepal political update, the Government appointed Nepal-India Eminent Persons’ Group member Nilamber Acharya to the long-vacant post.

Ever since the vacancy, Nepal Government was looking for a candidate with democratic credentials, especially Nepal-India relations and international affairs while also supporting the communist administration.

However, Acharya’s appointment by the leading Nepali Communist Party comes as a surprise, owing to his well-known affiliation to the Nepali Congress Party.

About Nilamber Acharya
Acharya was an interim minister after Nepal’s 1990 political change.

He was later appointed as Nepal Ambassador to Sri Lanka. In 2008, Nepali Congress nominated the minister to Nepal’s first Constituent Assembly and went on to lead the constitution committee.

Presently, he coordinates the Nepal Eminent Person Group on Nepal-India relations.

The new Ambassador is a Moscow graduate and has also served as an advocate.

Other Cabinet Nominations
The Nepal Cabinet also nominated Uday Raj Pandey as Nepal Ambassador to Malaysia and Krishna Dhakal as Nepal Ambassador to United Arab Emirates.

The cabinet decided to nominate Indira Niraula, Pitamber Timalsina and Rajesh Gurung as members of Nepal National Sports Council.

As part of the meeting, the cabinet also gave thematic approval to the Nepal National Priority Projects’ draft and decided to transfer Nepal former King’s family property ownership to Nepal Trust including the Kamaladi one.

Earlier, the Government had nominated former Nepal Election Commission Chief Commissioner Neelkantha Uprety as Nepal Ambassador to India. However, it withdrew this move following huge criticism.

The post Nilamber Acharya Appointed New ‘Nepal Ambassador to India’ appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali informed that a Cabinet meeting held on July 16, 2018 decided to recommend Upreti as the new Nepali envoy to India.

To further this process, Upreti’s name will be sent for approval to a Parliamentary committee.

Post the committee’s ‘approval’, it will be forwarded to Nepal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) which will then send it to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for an agreemo.

Upreti is being considered as a replacement to Deep Kumar Upadhyay, who resigned in October 2017 to contest for the Nepal Federal Parliamentary Elections 2017.

Upreti’s Political Career
Nilkantha Upreti has served as Nepal’s Election Commissioner and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC 2013). After serving as officiating CEC for over four years, Upreti became full-time Nepal CEC in 2017.

During his tenure, he interacted with several Kathmandu-based diplomatic missions and successfully conducted talks for several projects for the Nepal Election Commission.

Upreti has also worked with UN’s Afghanistan electoral operations.

We hope that the newly-appointed ambassador will take the existing Nepal-India bilateral ties to greater heights driving collaboration across all levels of cooperation.

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