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Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said the long-standing friendly relations between Nepal and Israel are getting better.

Speaking at a programme organised by the Embassy of Israel in Nepal and the BP Museum Committee at Sundarijal on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Minister Karki referred to the bilateral relationship established during the tenure of the first elected Prime Minister BP Koirala.

"Although establishing relations with Israel was a challenging task during that time, Prime Minister Koirala triumphed owing to proper understanding of the situation then," said Minister Karki.

Israel continues to remain an attractive destination for Nepali students and youths, especially in the field of agriculture.

Also speaking on the occasion, former foreign minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat said Nepal had been supporting Israel's independence, sovereignty and security for long. He expressed commitment to continue to hold same position in the days to come.

On the occasion, former foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali stressed the need to further strengthen the 60-year-old bilateral ties between Nepal and Israel.

Likewise, former Tourism Minister Hisila Yami said the role of the first elected Prime Minister BP Koirala was important in maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel. She said Nepal should follow the example of Israel as it had made progress in many areas.

Israeli Ambassador to Nepal Hanan Goder said BP, the first elected prime minister of Nepal, had written a novel on Hitler and the Jews, and that his commitment was to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Former Nepali ambassador to Israel Anjan Shakya said BP was an ideal personality of Nepal and even though the world had different views, he had established diplomatic relations by accepting Israel's independent existence on behalf of Nepal.

Diplomatic relations were established between Nepal and Israel on 1 June 1960. On the occasion, Museum Committee Chair Parshuram Pokharel said BP had to spend more than eight years in Sundarijal jail owing to the relationship established with Israel.

Chairperson of the CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal has ruled out the possibility of communist unification at present.

There is no truth in the reports about an alliance between the CPN (UML), the CPN (Maoist Center) and the Unified Socialist, he said at a press conference organised today in Surkhet.

There is not any possibility of unification with the UML and any electoral alliance with it, he said, adding that this existing communist democratic coalition would continue until coming provincial and parliament elections.

"Egoists and conspirators have circulated many types of rumours in a bid to break the existing communist democratic alliance. We are not hungry for any position. We can cut through such rumours."

On the budget for the next fiscal year, 2022/23, the former Prime Minister commented that it did not target coming elections. "It has been brought in times of elections. But it is not election-centered."

As he said, his party achieved a proud achievement in the recently organised local election. He however claimed that they had to lose some seats in the poll due to a lack of clarity of their election symbol.

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's Foreign Affairs Department chief Vijay Chauthaiwale expressed his confidence that Nepal-India relations would further strengthened in the days to come.

He said so during a meeting with Nepali Ambassador to India Shankar Sharma in New Delhi.

"I am glad that I met you," Chauthaiwale said, adding,"I am confident that the Nepal-India relations will be further strengthened in your term."

Earlier, Ambassador Sharma through Twitter said that he was happy to meet Chauthaiwale. He further said that Chauthaiwale was a close friend and well-wisher of Nepal.

The US and Germany pledged Wednesday to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east, Associated Press reported.

Germany said it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the US announced it willprovide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition.

The US is trying to help Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe. The Pentagon said it received assurances that Ukraine will not fire the new rockets into Russian territory.

The Kremlin accused the US of “pouring fuel on the fire.” 

Western arms have been critical to Ukraine’s success in stymieing Russia’s much larger and better-equipped military, thwarting its effort to storm the capital and forcing Moscow to shift its focus to the industrial Donbas region in the east.

But as Russia bombards towns in its inching advance in the east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly pleaded for more and better weapons and accused the West of moving too slowly, according to Associated Press.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, hailed the new Western weapons.

“I’m sure that if we receive all the necessary weapons and strengthen the efficient sanctions regime we will win,” he said. 

The new arms could help Ukraine set up and hold new lines of defense in the east by hitting back at Russian artillery pieces that have been battering towns and cities and by limiting Russian airstrikes, said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France’s military mission at the United Nations.

“The NATO countries — the European nations and the Americans — have progressively escalated the means that they are putting at Ukraine’s disposal, and this escalation, in my opinion, has had the aim of testing Russian limits,” he said. “Each time, they measure the Russian reaction, and since there is no reaction, they keep supplying increasingly effective and sophisticated weaponry.”

Military analysts say Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision US weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said. But Defense Undersecretary Colin Kahl said he believes they will arrive in time to make a difference in the fight, Associated Press reported.

The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million package of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more.

The rockets have a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) and are highly mobile. Ukraine had pushed unsuccessfully for rockets with a range of up to 186 miles (300 kilometers).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow does not trust assurances that Ukraine will not fire on Russian territory. “We believe that the US is deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire,” he said.

Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintzev later went further, directly accusing Ukraine of planning to fire US-provided missiles from the northeastern Sumy region at border areas in Russia. The claim, which he said was based on radio intercepts, couldn’t be independently confirmed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine’s push for more weapons is a “direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting.” He warned that the multiple rocket launchers would raise the risk of an expanded conflict, Associated Press reported.

“Sane Western politicians understand those risks well,” he said.

As the new weapons shipments were announced, a Russian missile hit rail lines in the western Lviv region, a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies, officials said. Regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said five people were wounded in Wednesday’s strike, and the head of Ukrainian railways said the damage was still being assessed.

Germany’s promise of IRIS-T air defense systems would mark the first delivery of long-range air defense weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war. Earlier deliveries of portable, shoulder-fired air defense missiles have bolstered the Ukrainian military’s ability to take down helicopters and other low-flying aircraft but didn’t give it enough range to challenge Russia’s air superiority, according to Associated Press.