Submit your Article

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are likely to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit, which is taking place in Thailand on April 3-4.

This will be the second meeting between Oli and Modi; the first meeting was held in September last year on the sidelines of the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations. Despite multiple requests, India is refusing to extend formal invitation to Oli for the official visit to New Delhi. According to government officials, the Oli-Modi meeting is expected to create a conducive environment for Oli’s India visit and Modi’s visit to Nepal. 

Minister for Foreign Affairs Arzu Rana Deuba has said more than once that Oil would soon receive the invitation from New Delhi for the bilateral visit. Presumably, the relationship between the two countries is not as it used to be after Nepal signed a framework agreement on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI and growing Chinese influence in Kathmandu is a cause of concern for us, says an Indian official requesting anonymity.

The summit was due to take place last year but was postponed in August, when Thailand was under a caretaker administration. The group’s meetings and summit will take place from April 2-4.  The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, includes Thailand, India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan and its leaders meet every two years for a summit. According to media reports, India has informed Thailand that Modi will travel to the country for the summit. As SAARC is completely dysfunctional, India is boosting BIMSTEC for regional cooperation, connectivity and security. 

Cathay celebrated its top five travel and cargo partner agents from Nepal today at the annual Wings of Excellence awards presentation, acknowledging their outstanding achievements and recognizing them for their valuable contributions and support to Cathay over the past year.

The event took place at Kathmandu Marriott Hotel on Tuesday.

Cathay’s Regional General Manager, South Asia, Middle East, and Africa Rakesh Raicar, Country Lead Nepal Junu Maleku and ChairmanGSA-Amravati Travels Pvt Ltd Siddhartha SJB Rana were present on the occasion.

Cathay’s Rakesh Raicar said: “It is our privilege to recognize and express our gratitude to our valued travel and cargo partners from Nepal. Their unwavering support has strengthened our collaboration, and we are excited about the new opportunities that lie ahead in 2025 and beyond. As we continue to grow together, we remain committed to delivering enhanced passenger and cargo services to our home hub, Hong Kong, and beyond.”

Junu Maleku said: “Our travel and cargo partners are the backbone of our success. Their support is indeed invaluable, and we remain committed to strengthening our partnership and delivering exceptional service. 

“The ‘Wings of Excellence’ awards underscore their trust in us, and we strive to help them serve their customers better, as we continue to leverage our global network and the strategic advantages of our home hub, Hong Kong.”

Oslo World Travel Nepal, Bon Travel & Tours Pvt. Ltd., Seven Star International Travel and Tours Pvt Ltd, Sea Links Travels and Tours Pvt Ltd., and Prabas Travel and Tours Pvt. Ltd. were recognised as the five top-performing travel agents for 2024. 

Meanwhile, the top five cargo agents for 2024 included Pioneer Cargo, Shangrila International Freight Pvt Ltd., GMK international Freight Pvt. Ltd., Himalayan Travel & Tours Pvt. Ltd., and Rising Star Cargo P. Ltd.

Each award-winning agent has played a significant role in Cathay’s success in Nepal and the wider region, reads a statement issued by Cathay.

Cathay Pacific will increase its flight frequencies between Hong Kong and Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport from five return flights per week to daily return flights from March 31, 2025.

These additional flights will provide customers from Nepal with more choice and connectivity to Hong Kong and beyond. 

Through the airline’s home hub in Hong Kong, customers from Nepal can connect to the Cathay Group’s extensive network of destinations in the Chinese Mainland, South Korea, Japan, Australia, the United States and Canada.

So far, the Cathay Group has announced eight new destinations that will be joining its global passenger network in 2025, with more still to come. Customers will be able to take advantage of direct flights from Hong Kong to Dallas in the United States starting 24 April 2025, according to the statement.

Increased capacity also means additional belly space for Cathay Cargo’s services from Kathmandu. This will allow Cathay Cargo to offer more time-bound solutions for the Nepal market, meeting the growing demand for efficient and reliable cargo services.

It also benefits time-sensitive products such as perishables, mail and courier services, ensuring regular and consistent deliveries.

The International Education group at Cambridge University Press & Assessment (Cambridge) and the British Council has announced the winners of the Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards in Nepal amidst a function on Tuesday.

The awards celebrate the outstanding academic achievements of secondary school learners in Nepal in the November 2023 and June 2024 Cambridge examination series.

Over 48 students in Nepal received awards for exceptional performance in Cambridge International AS & A Level examinations, including two students who achieved the highest marks in the world, 39 students who attained the highest marks in Nepal in a single subject, and 18 students who topped the country in the November 2023 exam series along with 21 students who topped the country in the June 2024 series.

The Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards program celebrates the success of students taking examinations awarded by Cambridge International Education in over 40 countries around the world.

Cambridge qualifications prepare and equip learners with the skills they need to thrive at university and beyond.

The world’s best higher education institutions acknowledge Cambridge qualifications and value the critical thinking skills, independent research abilities and deep subject knowledge that Cambridge learners bring to university.

On the occasion, Vinay Sharma Sr. VP, (South Asia) for International Education at Cambridge at the award ceremony said: ‘Cambridge learners are at the heart of everything we do. Every element of a Cambridge education – the curriculum, teaching and learning, resources and assessment is carefully designed to help learners reach their potential and thrive in life. We are delighted to congratulate learners from Nepal on their academic achievements in the November 2023 and June 2024 Cambridge examination series."

The Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards recognise the exceptional performance
of learners from around the world in Cambridge examinations. The awards reflect the talent and hard work of learners andacknowledge the dedication and commitment of their teachers and parents.

"We are delighted to see that the popularity of Cambridge examinations in Nepal continues to grow and this year we have a total of 48 students achieving an award. The award winners represent 20 schools in Nepal and cover a range of 35 subject areas at Cambridge International AS & A Level. All these awards demonstrate the high standard of education in our schools, " reads a statement issued by the British Council.

"We extend our best wishes to the learners of Nepal for their future endeavours." 

The awards also celebrate the achievements of those learners who have been recognized for ‘High Achievement’, based on outstanding performance in subjects which are not yet so widely taken in Nepal, and learners who have achieved the total highest cumulative marks across a number of subjects. The winning students out-performed thousands of candidates worldwide who sat Cambridge examinations.

Pratistha Thapa Rayamajhi, Exams Director and General Manager, British Council, Nepal said "I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all our award winners. Their achievements is a proof of their hard work, determination, and the unwavering support of their parents, teachers, and school leaders."

"The British Council takes pride in facilitating opportunities for students in Nepal through Cambridge A Levels, equipping them with essential skills for higher education and beyond. As they step into new opportunities, I encourage them to embrace challenges, pursue their passions, and strive for excellence. This is just the beginning of an exciting future filled with even greater accomplishments, " he added.

The Outstanding Cambridge Learner Award winners are as follows:

Top in Nepal

‘Top in Nepal’ is awarded to learners who haveachieved the highest standard mark in their countryfor a single subject.

Best Across awards

‘Best Across’ is awarded to learners who have achieved the highest cumulative total standard marks over a set ofsubjects.

High Achievement

‘High Achievement’ is awarded to learners who haveachieved outstanding results in subjects which are not so widely taken and which, under the current criteria,would not qualify for ‘Top in Nepal’.

Top in the World

‘Top in the World’ is awarded to learners who have achievedthe highest standard mark in the world for a single subject.

Foundation stone for the construction of Operation Theatre Building of Rapti Eye Hospital at Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City, Dang was laid jointly by Tikaram Khadka, Mayor, Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City, Dang and Basist Nandan, First Secretary, Embassy of India, Kathmandu, on Tuesday.

Political representatives, government officials and social workers were also present on this occasion. 
    
Operation theatre building of Rapti Eye Hospital is being built with Government of India’s financial assistance at the project cost of Rs 43.31 million under ‘Nepal-India Development Cooperation’. 

The Government of India’s grant under ‘Nepal-India Development Cooperation’  is being utilized for the construction of an operation theatre building and other allied facilities.

The project is being taken up as a High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP) and is being implemented through Tulsipur             Sub-Metropolitan City, Dang. 

Mayor, Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City, Dang and Chairperson, Rapti Eye Hospital Management Committee and other stakeholders appreciated the developmental support being provided by the Government of India to the people of Nepal, reads a statement issued by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

They expressed confidence that the infrastructure being created would help provide better healthcare facilities to the people of Nepal and will also contribute to the overall development of the health sector in Lumbini province of Nepal.

Since 2003, the Government of India has taken up over 563 HICDPs in Nepal in various sectors and has completed 495 projects.

Amongst these, 62 projects are in Lumbini Province.

In addition to these, the Government of India has gifted 1009 ambulances and 300 school buses to various hospitals, health posts and educational institutions in Nepal, according to the statement.

Amongst these, 164 ambulances and 43 school buses have been gifted in Lumbini Province. Out of these, 19 ambulances and 4 school buses  were gifted in Dang. This includes one ambulance that has been provided to Rapti Eye Hospital, Dang.   

As close neighbours, India and Nepal are engaged in wide-ranging and multi-sectoral cooperation.

The implementation of HICDPs reflects the continued support of the Government of India in bolstering the efforts of the Government of Nepal in growth and development of its people by augmenting infrastructure in priority sectors.  
 

The UK's data protection watchdog on Monday announced investigations into three social media networks, including TikTok and Reddit, over their use of children's personal data.

Growing concerns that young people could be sent inappropriate or harmful content from social media apps prompted the probes, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said in a statement.

"The responsibility to keep children safe online lies firmly at the door of the companies offering these services and my office is steadfast in its commitment to hold them to account," said Information Commissioner John Edwards.

The ICO will look into how Chinese-owned TikTok uses the personal information of 13-to-17-year-olds to make recommendations and deliver content to their social media feeds.

Online forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur are under investigation over their age assurance measures as well as personal information use.

"We're deeply committed to ensuring a positive experience for young people on TikTok," a company spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

TikTok has "comprehensive measures that protect the privacy and safety of teens, including industry-leading safety features and robust restrictions on the content allowed in teens' feeds", the firm added.

The other two platforms had yet to respond.

In 2023, the ICO fined popular video-sharing app TikTok several million pounds for failing to obtain consent of parents or guardians to use children's data, after they had set up accounts despite being too young. AFP 

President Donald Trump is ordering a pause on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine after his heated Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, a White House official told CNN Monday, CNN reported.

The halt in aid, which came after Trump held a series of meetings with top national security officials at the White House, could have dire effect on Ukraine’s war-fighting abilities, officials and analysts said. It will remain in place until Trump determines Zelensky has made a commitment to seeking peace talks, one official said, essentially forcing Ukraine to a negotiating table by threatening further losses on the battlefield.

“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” the White House official said.

After more than a week of open hostility between Washington and Kyiv, Monday’s pause was the most material sign of how far the relationship has deteriorated since Trump took office.

In recent weeks, Trump has echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talking points, falsely claiming Ukraine started the war and accusing Zelensky of being a dictator, but his decision to halt the delivery of military aid is a move that could have real consequences for the balance of the conflict and strengthen Putin’s hand.

The pause will apply to all military equipment not yet inside Ukraine, officials said, and amounts to a direct response to what Trump views as Zelensky’s bad behavior last week.

Ukraine could likely sustain its current fighting pace for several weeks — perhaps until the start of the summer — before a US pause would begin to have a major effect, Western officials said in the wake of the decision. The Biden administration rushed shipments of weapons to Ukraine in its waning days, providing the country with large stockpiles of advanced weapons, according to CNN.

It is those sophisticated weapons — including the long-range ATACMS missiles — that have allowed Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory, a strategy that could suffer if those weapons remain paused.

While European nations may be able to replace US shipments of artillery, supplemented by Ukraine’s own growing defense industry, the most advanced weapons used by Kyiv come from the United States.

Impact could be ‘crippling’

“The impact is going to be big. I would call it crippling,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has closely followed the war.

Cancian estimated that Ukraine would feel the impacts of the pause in aid within two to four months, as aid from European countries helps Kyiv remain in the fight for now. “That’s why they don’t fall off a cliff, but when your supplies get cut in half, eventually that shows up on the front lines,” Cancian said. “Their front lines would continue to buckle and eventually they would break and Ukraine would have to accept an adverse – even catastrophic – peace settlement.”

But Cancian warned the Trump administration has more forms of aid to Ukraine that can be paused or canceled altogether, including intelligence sharing and the training of Ukrainian forces. “There might be a way out of this, but it’s going to be extremely humiliating for Zelensky,” Cancian said.

The White House made the decision to pause military aid to Ukraine for now as officials seek an acknowledgement from Zelensky about the breakdown in relations following Friday’s blowup in the Oval Office.

According to several officials, Trump and his senior aides are seeking an acknowledgement from Zelensky – potentially in the form of a public apology – before moving ahead with a deal on Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, which had been close to agreement before Friday’s meeting, or a discussion on continuing foreign aid. The decision to halt the aid was made later on Monday, one person said, and is part of a pressure strategy on Ukraine, CNN reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly called for Zelensky to apologize for Friday in an interview on CNN.

The halt puts Trump even more clearly at odds with the United States’ traditional European allies like Britain and France, who made clear their support for Zelensky at a summit in London on Sunday.

“There is a capability gap that Europe cannot fill alone,” one US official said.

A European official called the Trump administration’s decision to pause military aid to Ukraine “petty and wrong.”

The official said it will immediately deepen distrust in the US government among the Ukrainian people. The official also predicted it will cause unnecessary civilian casualties, as Ukraine will not be able to defend against Russian air attacks after they run out of air defense missiles.

President Donald Trump has said he is moving forward with 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico into the US, adding that time had run out to reach a deal, BBC reported.

US stock markets sank in response to the measures, which he has threatened since earlier this year and said would now go into effect on Tuesday.

An additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports is also expected to come into force, leaving all three of America's top three trade partners facing significantly higher trade barriers than just a few weeks ago. 

"No room left for Mexico or for Canada," Trump said at the White House on Monday. "The tariffs, you know, they're all set. They go into effect tomorrow."

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters later on Monday: "Let's be clear, if Trump is imposing tariffs, we're ready." 

She said Ottawa planned to impose retaliatory tariffs against US imports of $155bn (£122bn), with the first tranche of $30bn ready immediately to be levied on everyday goods like pasta, clothing and perfume.

Joly noted that Canada did not want a trade war, but would hit back if the US started one.

The foreign minister added that the tariffs were "an existential threat to us", with "thousands of jobs in Canada at stake".

Mexico and China have also said they will retaliate against the US tariffs, raising the prospect of a widening trade war. 

Trump threatened to impose the tariffs, which are a tax added to a product when it enters a country - on Canada, Mexico and China in response to what he said was the unacceptable flow of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants into the US, according to BBC.

All the tariffs were supposed to take effect last month, until the US agreed to a one-month delay for Canada and Mexico, pulling its North American neighbours back from the brink of a potentially damaging trade war.

But Trump went ahead with imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese exports to the US in February, meaning goods from the country now face a levy of at least 20%.

Trump has long maintained that tariffs are a useful tool to correct trade imbalances and protect US manufacturing.

He has largely dismissed concerns that the measures risk economic damage in the US, despite the close ties, especially in North America, where businesses have enjoyed decades of free trade. 

"What they'll have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things, in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs," he added.

The three major indexes in the US sank after Trump's comments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 1.4%, the S&P 500 sank 1.75% and the Nasdaq fell 2.6%.

Officials from Canada and Mexico had been in Washington in recent days, trying to stave off the tariffs.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appeared to send a message to Trump earlier on Monday when she said at a public event in the city of Colima that "Mexico has to be respected".

"Co-operation [and] co-ordination, yes, subordination, never."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday, from a summit on Ukraine in London, that Canada was "not an issue" as a source of illegal fentanyl in the US.

Only 1% of fentanyl seized in the US is thought to come from Canada, according to US data.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says it has been "surging" its efforts to tackle fentanyl crossing into the US.

Canadian Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand met officials in Washington in recent days and said over the weekend there will be a response, BBC reported.

"We are steady at the wheel. We are prepared for any eventuality, but we will at every turn defend our country's economy," she told CBC News.

China's state-run Global Times newspaper said that Beijing had prepared countermeasures, which would probably target US agricultural and food products.

President Trump has also announced a 25% charge on all steel and aluminium imports, which is meant to come into effect on 12 March.

In addition, he has threatened to impose custom "reciprocal" tariffs on individual countries, as well as 25% tariffs on the European Union.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has demanded the Finance Ministry to ensure financial resources for the expansion of three airports in Karnali and Lumbini Provinces.

The Ministry has demanded Rs 11 billion to expand the airports of Surkhet and Jumla in Karnali Province and the Tarigaon airport, Dang in Lumbini Province.

Section officer at Tourism Ministry, Prakash Pokharel, informed that the Finance Ministry was proposed to ensure the financial resource for airport expansion.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal had recommended the government that it acquired lands for augmenting the airport capacity.

With this, the Council of Ministers on Monday decided to guarantee the financial resources.

Although Rs 5 billion was estimated to acquire lands for expanding the Tarigaon airport of Dang, the Finance Ministry is demanded allocation of Rs 10 million and the guarantee of the resource of Rs 990.

Similarly, the Finance Ministry has been asked to allocate Rs 100 million and guarantee the resource of Rs 4.90 billion for acquiring land and expanding the Surkhet airport.

Rs 1 billion has been estimated for buying land and expanding the facility at Jumla airport, while allocation of Rs 100 million and resource of Rs 400 is urged.

The Karnali Province government led by then chief minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi had forwarded an ambitious plan to operate province government's own air service.

However, the province government's plan to domestic and inter-province air service named 'Karnali Airlines' is in limbo.

The Shahi-led government had further announced the construction of 'high altitude' airport in Mugu and an airport of an international standard in Surkhet.

Even a Chinese company 'North West' had submitted a feasibility study to the province government for free of cost.

Currently, Kathmandu-Surkhet-Kathmandu has four flights in a day. Number of flights to upper Karnali has radically declined.

In 2077BS, the province government had mooted a plan to even conduct the night flights from Surkhet airport by expanding its runway up to 1,500 meter.