Kanchan JhaJha

Every few years, Nepal rediscovers its neighbourhood. A new government promises a reset with India, a fresh understanding with China and a development-driven foreign policy. Yet, the debate always ends where it began. Nepal’s greatest foreign policy problem is not Delhi or Beijing. It is the weakness of the Nepali state. The real divide is no longer between India and China but between ambition and implementation.

Facing the House of Representatives for the first time since assuming office, Prime Minister Balendra Shah revealed something startling. He told lawmakers that he had only recently learned that Nepal and India faced border complications extending beyond Nepal’s own territorial claims. Nepal’s Foreign Ministry scrambled within hours to clarify that the Prime Minister was referring to cross-border holding in no-man’s land, the Dasgaja strip, and not to any sovereign territorial concession.