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Nepal and the Republic of South Sudan have established diplomatic relations.

With this, the number of countries with which Nepal has bilateral diplomatic relations reached 175.

Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations Amrit Bahadur Rai and Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Sudan to the United Nations Akuei Bona Malwal signed a Joint Communiqué to this effect in a brief ceremony held at the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations.

The two Ambassadors also signed a joint letter informing the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres about the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

On the occasion, the two Ambassadors exchanged views on various matters of common interest to strengthen bilateral cooperation in national and multilateral settings, particularly at UN forums for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

They also discussed how a country could make the successful transition from conflict to peace in the context of South Sudan’s ongoing peace process. 

Ambassador Rai expressed Nepal’s willingness to share its experience on homegrown peace processes to achieve peace in South Sudan.  

Both Nepal and South Sudan are the members of Group of Least Developed Countries, and Landlocked Developing Countries as well as G77 and China. RSS

Nepal is preparing to discuss border issues with India.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is embarking on a three-day visit to India on Friday.

Nepal is preparing to raise border issues during Prime Minister Deuba’s India visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Organizing a press conference in the Ministry on Tuesday, spokesperson Sewa Lamsal said that as the border issues between Nepal and India are an important topic, it will be discussed during the Prime Minister’s visit to India.

Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka and his Indian counterpart Jaishankar held a meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the duo discussed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s visit to India, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

PM Deuba is embarking on a three-day visit to India on Friday.

He will hold a meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday.

Ukrainian forces claimed to have retaken a Kyiv suburb and an eastern town from the Russians in what is becoming a back-and-forth stalemate on the ground, while negotiators began assembling for another round of talks Tuesday aimed at stopping the fighting, Associated Press reported.

Ahead of the talks, to be held in Istanbul, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and is open to compromise on the fate of the Donbas, the contested region in the country’s east.

The mayor of Irpin, a northwestern Kyiv suburb that has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting near the capital, said Monday that the city has been “liberated” from Russian troops.

Zelenskyy warned that Russian forces are trying to regroup after losing the area.

“We still have to fight, we have to endure,” the president said late Monday in his nighttime video address to the nation. “We can’t express our emotions now. We can’t raise expectations, simply so that we don’t burn out.”

Irpin gained wide attention after photos circulated of a mother and her two children who were killed by shelling as they tried to flee, their bodies lying on the pavement with luggage and a pet carrier nearby, according to the Associated Press.

A senior US defense official said the US believes the Ukrainians have also retaken the town of Trostyanets, south of Sumy, in the east.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss US intelligence assessments, said Russian forces largely remained in defensive positions near the capital, Kyiv, and were making little forward progress elsewhere in the country.

The official said Russia appeared to be de-emphasizing ground operations near Kyiv and concentrating more on the Donbas, the predominantly Russian-speaking region where Moscow-backed rebels have been waging a separatist war for the past eight years, Associated Press reported.

Late last week, with its forces bogged down in parts of the country, Russia seemed to scale back its war aims, saying its main goal was gaining control of the Donbas.

While that suggested a possible face-saving exit strategy for Russian President Vladimir Putin, it also raised Ukrainian fears that the Kremlin intends to split the country in two and force it to surrender a swath of its territory.

Meanwhile, a cyberattack knocked Ukraine’s national telecommunications provider Ukrtelecom almost completely offline. The chief of Ukraine’s state service for special communication, Yurii Shchyhol, blamed “the enemy” without specifically naming Russia and said most customers were cut off from telephone, internet and mobile service so that coverage could continue for Ukraine’s military.

Also Monday, an oil depot in western Ukraine’s Rivne region was hit by a missile attack, the governor said. It was the second attack on oil facilities in the region near the Polish border, according to the Associated Press.

In recent days, Ukrainian troops have pushed the Russians back in other sectors.

In the city of Makariv, near a strategic highway west of the capital, Associated Press reporters saw the carcass of a Russian rocket launcher, a burned Russian truck, the body of a Russian soldier and a destroyed Ukrainian tank after fighting there a few days ago. In the nearby village of Yasnohorodka, the AP witnessed positions abandoned by Ukrainian soldiers who had moved farther west, but no sign of Russian troops.

And on Friday, the US defense official said the Russians were no longer in full control of Kherson, the first major city to fall to Moscow’s forces. The Kremlin denied it had lost full control of the southern city, Associated Press reported.