Diplomacy: Nepal’s relations with 178 countries

Nepal and the Republic of Malawi established diplomatic relations on Thursday. With this, the number of countries with which Nepal has diplomatic relations has reached 178.

Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations, Amrit Bahadur Rai and Ambassador/Permanent Representative of the Republic of Malawi to the United Nations, Mrs Agnes Mary Chimbiri-Molande signed a joint communiqué to this effect in a brief ceremony held at the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York, USA on February 16.

Located in Southern Africa, Malawi is also a landlocked country, sharing its borders with Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania. It has a total of 118,484 square kilometres of area with about 20 million population.

The two ambassadors also signed a joint letter informing the Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres about the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations said.

On the occasion, the two ambassadors exchanged views on various matters of common interest to strengthen bilateral cooperation in national and international forums. They also discussed the role of Least Developed Countries as a group at different forums including at the United Nations for the protection and promotion of shared interests of the Group. Nepal is taking over the role of the Chair of the Global Coordination Bureau of LDCs from Malawi next month.

Both Nepal and Malawi are the members of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Group of 77, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as well as Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs).