Balen ends envoy snub amid protests, to meet India & China ambassadors

NEW DELHI: Nepal prime minister Balendra Shah is set to break his self-imposed rule of avoiding one-on-one meetings with foreign diplomats by holding separate talks with Indian ambassador Naveen Srivastava and Chinese ambassador Zhang Maoming this week, a diplomatic reset that comes as his govt faces growing street protests and questions over its early policy choices. The two meetings are expected to be held on the same day, an arrangement meant to signal that both India and China remain central to Nepal’s foreign policy.Shah took office on March 27 after riding a Gen Z-driven political wave that promised a break from Nepal’s old political order, but his first weeks in power were marked by an unusual diplomatic posture. He avoided individual meetings with envoys and visiting officials who would ordinarily expect one-on-one access to Nepal’s head of govt, including India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri, whose Kathmandu visit was postponed after Shah declined to meet him. It was the same story with senior US diplomats, including assistant secretary of state Samir Paul Kapur, who visited Kathmandu in April.Shah’s aides had framed the approach as a "new protocol" under which the PM would not hold one-on-one meetings with foreign officials below foreign minister level, leaving such engagements to foreign ministry channels or collective briefings. Shah also accepted PM Narendra Modi’s invitation to visit India soon after taking office, but that visit has still not taken place. Meanwhile, RSP chairman Rabi Lamichhane received a high-profile welcome in New Delhi in June.Lamichhane’s visit sharpened the contrast. He met Modi, home minister Amit Shah, external affairs minister S Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval, Misri and BJP president Nitin Nabin, among others, signalling that New Delhi had opened its top political, diplomatic and security channels to Nepal's ruling party chief.Shah did receive ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions collectively on April 8. At that meeting, attended by representatives from 17 countries and the United Nations, he spoke of a “balanced and pragmatic foreign policy” and relations based on “trust, mutual respect and shared prosperity”. His govt later presented the format as part of stricter enforcement of Nepal’s "diplomatic code of conduct".Officials familiar with the new development said the decision to begin separate meetings with India and China was deliberate. “It is natural to begin with ambassadors of our two neighbours, India and China, given Nepal’s foreign policy priorities,” an official said, adding that scheduling the meetings on the same day was meant to avoid any perception of preference.The shift comes shortly after Shah’s govt completed 100 days in office, a period in which the street energy that helped bring him to power has begun turning towards his own administration. Protests have broken out over the use of municipal police and bulldozers against Kathmandu’s landless settlements, street vendors and informal workers, with critics saying the city’s poorest residents have borne the sharpest edge of his governance style.Border communities also protested strict enforcement of customs duty on goods worth more than Nepali Rs 100 brought from Indian markets. Anger deepened further after 25-year-old ride-hailing driver Ganesh Nepali set himself ablaze following municipal police action, bringing Gen Z activists, civil-rights voices, informal workers and displaced residents back to the streets.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.