New Delhi: Prime Minister Balen Shah will lead Nepal’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly later this month, to draw international attention to devastation caused by the flash flood that ravaged three districts including Rasuwa and Nuwakot last month.
The decision came amid growing calls from lawmakers, ministers and leaders of Balen’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) for him to personally present Nepal’s case before world leaders at the annual gathering, Kathmandu Post reported.
Additionally, the report also said that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has asked the foreign ministry to form a small delegation, but the composition had not been finalised as yet. This will be Balen’s first foreign trip since taking office in March.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal was to travel to New York for the General Assembly. But the decision was reconsidered after the deadly flash flood in the Bhotekoshi river devastated parts of Nepal on 26 August. The flash flood have claimed at least 1,280 lives as on 4 September, with more than 5,000 still missing.
The disaster added urgency to Nepal’s long-running appeal for greater international action on climate change, particularly the risks faced by communities in the Himalayas, the report said.
The formal opening of the 81st session of the General Assembly is scheduled for 8 September, with the high-level General Debate beginning on 22 September.
On Thursday, lawmakers from across Nepal’s political spectrum urged PM Balen Shah to attend the UNGA and use the international platform to highlight the country’s vulnerability to climate-related disasters.
Manish Jha of the RSP and Barshaman Pun of the Nepali Communist Party were among those who called for Balen to travel to New York, according to the report.
Pun argued that Nepal should use the United Nations to seek greater international support and compensation. “Simply raising this issue from here is not enough,” he said. “The Prime Minister should go to the United Nations and other international forums, appeal to the world, assert our rights and demand compensation,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
Shah made a similar case Wednesday in Parliament while briefing parliamentarians on damage caused by the Bhotekoshi disaster and the government’s response.
He called on the international community to treat the flash flood as a warning about the growing dangers facing the Himalayan region. “Experts have said that the flood in the Bhotekoshi river in Rasuwa was triggered by a massive rockslide in the Himalayas,” Shah said. “The incident is a serious indication that the risks we face are increasing.”
Nepal, he added, needed to make a stronger international case that climate change was contributing to natural disasters confronting the country.
“Climate change is a global problem,” he said. “Mitigating and managing its impacts is a shared responsibility of the international community.”
Some ministers and RSP leaders are also urging Balen to attend the UN climate conference, COP31, scheduled to take place in Antalya, Türkiye, in November this year.
Nepal Foreign Minister Khanalsaid Tuesday that Nepal’s own greenhouse-gas emissions were “practically negligible,” yet the country was bearing the consequences of a crisis it had done little to create.
“We are shifting our diplomatic framework from “aid” to “justice and compensation”. This is not a matter of charity; it is a matter of legal and moral liability. The major industrial emitters—such as China, which is the world’s top emitter, the United States at number two, and India at number three—have a historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal,” Khanal said in an interview with local television channel Kantipur TV.
(Edited by Nivedita Patil)
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