4 June 2020, NIICE Commentary 5219
Afroz Khan
On 1 June 2020, Nepal and Israel celebrated their 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties. On this occasion Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a telephonic conversation and congratulated on each other. According to the press release by the Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two leaders expressed satisfaction on the state of bilateral relations that grew and consolidated in the past 60 years and agreed to further strengthen it in the future. They highlighted the importance of increased level of engagements at bilateral and multilateral forums, people to people contacts and Nepal-Israel cooperation. The conversation also covered the global fight against COVID-19 and its impact on the economic and social lives of the people. Prime Minister Oli shared the measures taken by the Government of Nepal for containing the virus and protecting the lives of the people and admired the effective measures taken by Israeli Government to control the spread of the virus. Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Gayawali and his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi also greeted each other on this occasion. They expressed their commitment for cooperation between the two countries in the fields of agriculture, human resources and trade.
With the established of their diplomatic relations on 1 June 1960, Nepal became the first South Asian country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel at embassy level. This was the time when most of the Asian countries including China and India had no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Nepal opened a diplomatic office first in Rome (to avoid Arab hostility by opening embassy in Israel) to deal with Israeli affairs and later Nepalese embassy in Egypt was assigned to deal with this task. Nepal finally opened an honorary Consulate General in Israel in 1993 and embassy in 2007. Development of Nepal-Israel relations is the best example of Nepalese independence over its foreign policy issue and a set back to the common perception that New Delhi has the final say over Nepalese external affairs.
The interaction between these two countries goes back to the First Asian Socialist Conference held in Rangoon (Yangoon) in the year 1953, when Nepalese Prime Minister BP Koirala met with Israeli leader Moshe Sharett. Sharett visited Nepal in 1956 to convince Nepalese leadership for the establishment of bilateral relations between the two countries. Initially Nepal rejected this proposal due to the fear of Arab and Indian repercussions. But later, it realised the need of Israel for its own technological and agricultural development.
In 1958, BP Koirala paid a visit to Israel. After getting elected as Nepal’s first democratically elected Prime Minister in 1959, Koirala paid an official visit to Israel where he spoke in the conference at Weizman Institute of Science on the topic of “National Development”. During this visit many rounds of talk were held over the issues of technological and agricultural assistance and the establishment of official diplomatic relations between the two countries. Israel immediately extended its hand and completed many joint projects at Nepalganj and Nawalpur.
The warm relations between the two countries continued even when King Mahendra dissolved Nepal’s democratically elected government in 1960. Israeli Foreign Ministry in its statement clarified that the internal political turmoil will not affect relations between the two countries. King Mahendra made an official five day visit to Israel in 1963 and invited Israeli President Zalman Shazar to Nepal, which he accepted and paid an official visit in 1966 and stayed in Nepal for eight long days. In 1968, Crown Prince Birendra also visited Israel while Moshe Dayan, Israel’s legendry war hero and Foreign Minister also visited Nepal in 1979. This continued with many high profile visits from both the sides in the upcoming years. Both the countries continued to maintain their cordial relations even after Nepal became Republic in 2008.
While developing relations with Israel, Nepal maintained close relations with the Arab world. Nepal continued its support for the establishment of peace and stability in the region. It welcomed every initiative to bring peace and a just solution to the problem of Israel-Palestine conflict. It welcomed Camp David Accord signed between Israel and Egypt in 1978. When Israel and PLO signed the historic Oslo Agreement in 1993 to discard violence and find a peaceful solution to the Israel Palestine conflict, Nepalese Prime Minster wrote letters to appreciate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yasser Arafat for their courageous decision toward regional stability and peace.
Currently, Nepal and Israel are jointly working on many development projects ranging from health, infrastructure and community development in Nepal. After the completion of 52 years of diplomatic relations in 2012, Israel and Nepal issued a joint postal stamp featuring the highest (Mount Everest) and lowest places onthe earth (Dead Sea) which is in Nepal and Israel respectively.
In 2015, when the whole world was shocked over the catastrophic earthquake in Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 and destroying hundreds of thousands of homes, Israel was among the first countries to send humanitarian aid to Nepal. Many Israeli NGOs like Tevel b’Tzedek (The Earth in Justice) and IsraAID are working in Nepal on issues of community development and humanitarian assistance. Thousands of Nepalese workers are currently working in various sectors as caregivers, factory workers, cooks and many other professions in Israel. Every year hundreds of Israeli tourists visit Nepal for Himalayan adventure.
The foundation of Nepal-Israel relations is based on the principles of trust and understanding. These two countries have huge potential for future cooperation. Exchange of Israeli technological sophistication and Nepal’s rich human resource should continue in future for the benefit of both the countries and they should jointly explore other possible areas of cooperation. In future, Nepal and Israeli’s tourism industry can jointly cooperate to promote tourism in Nepal. This move will turn Nepal to be the best alternative for the young Israeli tourists who desperately look for economical adventure destinations for holiday after their compulsory military service.
