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Indian and Chinese counterparts have congratulated Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sent separate congratulatory messages wishing Minister Shrestha a successful tenure.

Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha's personal secretary Suresh Kaji Shrestha said that Minister Shrestha expressed his gratitude for their congratulations and best wishes for a successful tenure.

Shrestha, the senior vice-chair of the CPN (Maoist Center), was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs on March 6.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is seeking a vote of confidence in the meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) scheduled for today.

The federal parliamentary secretariat has already made necessary preparations to this effect. The HoR meeting is scheduled to be held at 11 am today.

The Prime Minister is going to seek the vote of confidence again today after the Nepali Congress withdrew the support extended to the Prime Minister with the change in the ruling coalition on March 4.

Dahal, also the chairperson of the CPN (Maoist Centre), was elected the Prime Minister on 25 December 2022. He had taken the vote of confidence on 10 January 2023.

Out of the 270 lawmakers present in the Parliament, 268 gave a vote of confidence to PM Dahal. At the moment, all the parties, including Nepali Congress had given him a vote of confidence.

During the presidential election, the ruling coalition changed again. CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party withdrew their support to the government. Prime Minister Dahal had again taken the vote of confidence on 20 March 2023, after the change of the ruling coalition. He had secured 172 votes at the HoR.

After the change of alliance again on 4 March, the then ruling partner Nepali Congress now has reached the opposition. The party has withdrawn the vote of confidence. CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Swatantra Party, Janata Samajwadi Party and CPN (Unified Socialist) have formed a new alliance. 

Prime Minister Dahal, who has the support of the new alliance, is going to take a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives today. The parties affiliated to the alliance have also issued whip to give a vote of confidence to the Prime Minister.

In the HoR, UML has 78 lawmakers, Maoist Center 32, Rastriya Swatantra Party 21, Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal 12 and Unified Socialist 10.

Chairperson of Nagarik Unmukti Party and parliamentary party leader Ranjita Shrestha has also issued a whip to vote for PM Dahal.

On this basis, the Prime Minister will easily get a vote of confidence.

The Prime Minister needs 138 votes to trust him. The parliamentary secretariat has included PM Dahal's vote of confidence as a possible agenda for today's meeting of the HoR.

The five-party ruling coalition has formed a 10-member task force to prepare a Common Minimum Program (CMP) of the government. Along with domestic issues, the task force will also outline the foreign policy priorities of the new government.

The latest coalition has four communist parties—CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist), and Janata Samajbadi Party—and one centrist party, Rastriya Swatantra Party. Before the Unified Socialist entered the coalition, the four parties had signed an eight-point deal where they had made a brief mention about the government’s foreign policy. They pledged to ensure “a balanced and extended international relations, keeping national interests and priority at the forefront.”

The UML, Maoist, Unified Socialist, and Janata Samajbadi have almost similar views on foreign policy, while the RSP, a new party that emerged through the 2022 general elections, has no clear foreign policy outlook as of yet. 

Whenever the government in Nepal is overwhelmed by communist parties, the international community, particularly India and western democracies, keenly watch the priorities and approach of Kathmandu. As a result, the communist government always has to go the extra mile to win the trust of democratic world. China, on the other hand, feels comfortable when there is a strong communist government in Nepal. 

So building trust with major powers will be crucial for the government of Pushpa Kamal Dahal. 

Except for China, no countries have officially reacted to the formation of the new coalition. On March 5, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said: “China has been informed about the formation of a new power equation and the reorganization of the cabinet in Nepal. We hope that the relevant parties of the alliance will unite and advance the work of forming a new government and bring about political stability, economic growth and improvement in the people’s livelihoods.”

After the Cabinet reshuffle in Kathmandu, major countries—the US, China, India, and the UK— have met Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun. Unlike in the previous Cabinet, the two key ministries are now led by the Maoist party. Earlier, both ministries were headed by the Nepali Congress, and Prime Minister Dahal was unhappy with the working ways of the Congress ministers. 

The prime minister expects to bring some sort of uniformity in both foreign policy and economic fronts by appointing Maoist ministers. But it may take some time to identify the foreign policy and economic priorities of the new coalition. 

After taking a vote of confidence on March 13, Prime Minister Dahal plans to brief the international community about his foreign policy priorities. The prime minister’s secretariat has already been reaching out to major embassies in Kathmandu to assure that the new alliance will  maintain cordial ties with all countries. 

For Dahal, taking the international community into confidence is crucial ahead of the investment summit. 

In its CMP in 2022, the coalition of these same parties had outlined the foreign policy priorities. Its major points included protecting the country’s national independence and national interests, ensuring the rights of land-locked countries, and a relationship based on equality between big and small countries. It also talked about enhancing the policy of non-interference in internal affairs of other countries, adopting the UN Charter, Panchsheel, non-alignment, world peace and operating international relations based on the international laws. On the neighbors front, the 2022 CMP pledged to maintain “a friendly relationship with neighbors and all friendly nations for peace, stability, economic reformation and the people’s prosperity” based on mutual benefits and welfare.

The new CMP is unlikely to come up with any concrete or new points to provide guidelines for the new coalition. In the past, Prime Minister Dahal had tried to skip the contentious issues with major powers to focus on development and economic partnership. This led the main opposition at the time, CPN-UML, to blame the Dahal government for giving less priority to the relationship with China.  

Now the UML has become a key coalition partner in the Dahal-led government, and it will be interesting to see how the Maoists and UML will reconcile their differences. 

NP Saud, the former foreign minister from the Nepali Congress, says Nepal’s foreign policy is based on non-alignment and UN charter but in practice the country needs to make cordial ties with immediate neighbors India and China and other major countries.  

“Under my leadership, we have been successful in creating an environment of trust with both neighbors and other big powers. We signed energy trade cooperation with India which is instrumental to bring foreign investment in Nepal’s hydropower and other areas.” 

He adds that the previous coalition government also convinced the US and other western powers to make investment in Nepal, while the relationship with China was also moving in a positive direction. 

“There is an opportunity for this coalition government to bring in huge investments from the US and the UK. It will be a wise idea for the new coalition to follow the path that we have created in the last one year,” suggests Saud.

Dr. Nihar R. Nayak, research fellow with India’s think tank MP-IDSA, says given Nepal’s geostrategic location, Nepal does not have leverage to bring about strong changes in the conduct of foreign policy irrespective of which party comes into the power. 

“The policy of neutrality, Panchansheel,  non-alignment and not to join any military alliances are the key issues that the new coalition is likely to reiterate while conducting the foreign policy. The new coalition I think will try to keep a cordial relationship with neighbors and other powers such as the US, the UK, Japan, South Korea and other key development partners.” 

In China, Nihar predicts that there could be some progress on the BRI projects as both China and the left government want to move ahead with it. 

“China is likely to adopt some sort of flexibility in the negotiations with BRI such as concessional loans and other issues. 

In India, Nihar says, “there will not be any major changes and the current government is unlikely to raise any sensitive issues.”

Newly elected chairperson of the National Assembly (NA) Narayan Prasad Dahal said that he would take initiative to boost the prestige and importance of the upper chamber of the Federal Parliament.

Talking to media persons while exiting from the meeting after his election to the post, Chair Dahal shared that he would play an active role to establish the thinking that NA is the essential institution.

"I am committed to unite NA members of all parties to fulfill the entire roles and responsibilities of NA. I also have self-confidence that I will be successful in it," he underlined.

Stating that he would move ahead taking every activity that falls within NA's jurisdiction seriously, NA Chair Dahal stressed that he would be involved in formulating laws as well as boosting the prestige of the NA.

Dahal is scheduled to take oath of office and secrecy before President Ramchandra Paudel today itself.