Remarks by Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Shisir Khanal on “Steering Nepal’s Future in Asia’s Rising Century” at Asia Society #UNGA81

Remarks by Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Shisir Khanal on “Steering Nepal’s Future in Asia’s Rising Century”

 

Distinguished Leadership of the Asia Society,

Excellencies, Ambassadors, and Colleagues of the Diplomatic Corps,

Scholars, Captains of Industry, and Honored Guests.

Namaste and a very warm good afternoon to you all.

 

It is a profound privilege to address the Asia Society today.

 

The Mountain Speaks

 

I arrived in New York at a solemn moment for my country. On August 26th, our Himalayan valleys were struck by what can only be described as a Himalayan Tsunami. In minutes, roaring waters claimed precious lives, severed critical trade arteries, and washed away mountain settlements. On behalf of the Government and people of Nepal, I convey our profound grief for the lives lost across Nepal and neighboring China, and extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved families.

Nepal has long endured natural shocks, rugged terrain, and structural constraints, but we have never been defined by them. For Nepal, optimism is not an optional luxury; it is an obligation.

 

What gives our nation grounds for unwavering hope is the quiet resilience, youth, and sheer dynamism of our people.

 

The recent tragedy offers an unmistakable foreign-policy imperative for Nepal: treating climate change as an existential strategic priority.

We, therefore, must focus on robust ecological cooperation: better early warning mechanisms, hydrological data-sharing, predictable grant based climate finance, and practical collaboration with the neighbours and global community.

 

When a nation cannot alter its physical geography, it must summon strategic agency.

 

Nepal Reintroduced

 

To understand that agency, we must first shatter an archaic mental model.

 

Nepal is routinely described as a small country. But scale is purely relational. With nearly thirty million people, Nepal has a population larger than Australia's, and if placed in the European Union, it would be its sixth-most populous member.

 

Placed alongside continental giants like India and China, Nepal naturally appears small.

Our neighbors’ scale is a fact of geography; it must never become the ceiling of our ambition. Nepal is not small. Nepal is positioned.

Scholars and experts often remind us that we are living through the return of the Asian Century, home to sixty percent of humanity and accounting for half of global economic output.

 

When the world speaks of Asia, the western imagination often races east toward Shanghai, Singapore or Tokyo. Yet South Asia is home to two billion people and some of the fastest-transforming societies on earth. Delhi, Dhaka, and Kathmandu are just as central to this resurgence.

Our question in this rising century is no longer: How does Nepal survive between two giants?

 

Our question is: How does Nepal create value between them—and beyond them?

 

We Have Been Here Before

 

History proves that we have answered this question before.

 

Long before modern cartography, the Kathmandu Valley was a wealthy, cosmopolitan entrepôt connecting the Gangetic plains to the Tibetan plateau. The architectural wonders of our Durbar Squares were built by wealth generated from trans-Himalayan commerce.

 

Nepal has always been an active civilizational bridge. Gautama Buddha was born in Lumbini, illuminating Asia. Princess Bhrikuti and the master artist Araniko carried Nepali craftsmanship, philosophy, and architecture across the high plateaus to the imperial courts of China. Concurrently, sacred Hindu pilgrimage circuits linking Janakpur, Pashupatinath, and Muktinath with Ayodhya, Kashi and Kedarnath weave an unbroken spiritual fabric.

 

This heritage is living capital. By modernizing our air corridors and professionalizing pilgrim circuits, Nepal is uniquely positioned as Asia’s sanctuary of peace and wellness.

Our ancestors understood a universal truth: connectivity creates prosperity; isolation breeds poverty.

 

From Geography to Agency

 

Yet history and geography alone do not create power. Institutions do.

 

Nepal’s problem was never potential. It was predictability: unstable policies, slow contracts, and bureaucratic friction that stalled enterprise.

 

Over the past year, Nepal experienced an organic and digitally enabled democratic awakening, driven in large part by the impatience of our Gen-Z youth with corruption, bureaucratic inertia and opaque patronage. Their demand was straightforward: integrity, meritocracy and measurable results in public service.

 

Good governance is therefore not simply a moral aspiration. It is an economic strategy. Predictable institutions and the rule of law are prerequisites for investment, enterprise and opportunity.

 

This brings us to the governing doctrine of our statecraft: Developmental Autonomy. We have set ourselves a clear national goal of achieving middle income status in the next 10 years and high-income, developed status by 2050.

 

Multi-engagement is an instrument for expanding Nepal’s capabilities, room for manoeuvre and economic dignity. Our foreign policy must ultimately build productive capacity and create high-wage employment at home.

 

 

Three Directions, One Strategy

 

Developmental autonomy is not about choosing sides; it is about increasing our value across three confident, unified directions:

 

First, Southward: Turning proximity into production.

 

Nepal shares over 1,700-kilometer open border with five Indian states—Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim—home to over 400 million people. Contiguous to this vast market lies Nepal’s fertile Terai. Guided by our policy of "Thick Connectivity and Thin Borders," we are moving towards structured, reciprocal interdependence.

 

Nepal’s perennial rivers possess 43 gigawatts of economically viable hydropower. By scaling toward 28,000 megawatts by 2035, Nepal can power regional industrial decarbonization, exporting clean electricity to India and onward to Bangladesh.

 

For global and Indian firms seeking resilient  supply chains, locating manufacturing in Nepal’s border Special Economic Zones provides a structural edge: continuous, low-cost green power to decarbonize production networks, alongside favorable international market access.

 

Second, Northward: Turning geography into connectivity and diversification.

With China, our approach is pragmatic, commercially grounded, and focused on long-term resilience. Our objective is not simply to open roads to the north; it is to transform Nepal from a landlocked economy into a land-linked economy.

We are advancing a genuinely multidimensional Trans-Himalayan connectivity network—encompassing roads, tunnels, dry ports, aviation, digital links, and, cross-border rail. But connectivity must ultimately be measured not in kilometers of infrastructure, but in the movement of goods, services, investment, tourists, and opportunity.

 

Crucially, our northern partnership must ground in the shared science of the Himalayas—glacial monitoring, disaster early warning, hydrological information, climate adaptation, and resilient infrastructure.

 

We also seek deeper cooperation in digital connectivity, technology transfer, and innovation, ensuring the mountains do not become a barrier to the next generation of Nepali enterprise. Guided by transparent financing, rigorous feasibility, and value-for-money principles, Nepal will pursue every opportunity for mutually beneficial cooperation while preserving our sovereign autonomy.

 

We do not see our northern and southern corridors as competing directions. We see Nepal land-linked to two of the world’s largest markets, home to nearly three billion people. Our ambition is to turn this geography into a gateway for commerce and opportunity.

 

Third, Global Reach: Turning multi-engagement into advantage.

 

Beyond the neighborhood, we plan to further deepen our partnership with the United States, Europe, Japan, ASEAN, and the Gulf.

 

Because data and software carry almost no transit friction, Nepal can leverage its clean electricity and cool climate to become a trusted digital hub, including through a Fintech and AI Sandbox.

 

Our 5 million-strong global diaspora is a strategic asset.

 

We are ending the era of viewing them merely as senders of remittances. Through sovereign instruments like USD-denominated Diaspora Development Notes, we are channeling their capital and expertise directly into enterprise, technology, and national infrastructure.

 

The Sovereign Bridge

 

Distinguished Guests,

 

At a historical moment when the post-war multilateral architecture risks buckling under the strain of great-power rivalries, it falls upon smaller and middle powers to hold the fortress of international law, sovereign equality, and rules-based predictability. We cannot afford to be passive bystanders as global norms fracture.

 

Nepal was a civilizational bridge in the past. We are an economic bridge in our present. And we will be a strategic bridge for our future.

 

Yet, Nepal’s future cannot be charted in isolation. It must be written for our people, but it cannot be authored by our people alone. To our partners in the United States, across Europe, throughout ASEAN, Latin America, and beyond: our doors are open, our rules are transparent, and you are warmly welcome to build alongside us.

Nepal stands eager to learn from your journeys, to collaborate with everyone in this distinguished hall, and to build a just, interconnected global commons together.

 

Thank you very much. Namaste.