Nepal and Israel: Uniqueness in Asian Relations

Abstract

Fifteen years ago a Nepali who became actively involved in the conduct of his country's foreign relations took careful note of the geopolitical realities facing landlocked Nepal, situated between the two colossuses of Asia, India and China, and observed: security, independence and integrity of Nepal hinge on the of cordiality between India and China. India's foreign policy of non-alignment with any one of the international power-blocs admirably suits Nepal's own interests of safety and security.1 Nepal has endeavored over the years to translate her nonaligned policy and posture between India and China into a performance of cordiality, and with generally commendable success. But by the late 1950s she was also beginning to establish relations with a number of other countries and, through diversifying her diplomatic relations, was lessening the image that her foreign policy was virtually a carbon copy of something formulated in New Delhi. One of the most interesting and unique of Nepal's new international relationships to emerge during the past decade has been that developed with the State of Israel. It has endured through the present and merits discussion in the context of Asian relations. Following the first nationwide elections in the history of Nepal, held in early 1959, the socialist oriented Nepali Congress under B. P. Koirala began Nepal's painfully brief experiment with parliamentary democracy.2 The immediate international scene posed a difficult series of challenges for Nepal and her object of achieving a balanced foreign policy. Sino-Indian relations were rapidly deteriorating following the Chinese suppression of Tibet and the Dalai Lama's flight to India for political asylum, while Himalayan border disputes between the two great neighbors were becoming disturbingly manifest. On the Nepali domestic scene, Koirala as Prime Minister faced the task of accommodating factional and personal rivalries within his new cabinet and, as events later proved, of averting a takeover of the government by an assertive and mistrustful Crown in a royal coup d'etat. Perhaps in those trying circumstances the invitation from Israel to visit