Nepal's new PM Balendra Shah may avoid foreign trips for a year

Foreign secretary Vikram Misri set to visit Nepal in May as US, China engage Balen Shah

New Delhi: The new Nepalese PM may not undertake a trip to India or any other country abroad in the near future, contrary to expectations.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah may not even undertake any foreign trips for at least a year, according to newly-appointed general secretary of the ruling Rastriya Swantantra Party (RSP), Bhoop Dev Shah.


The PM will first focus on issues of the general population and development, according to Bhoop Dev Shah.

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"He will obviously go on foreign trips. But first, he will focus on issues of the general population and development," Shah recently told Nepal's popular TV channel Kantipur Television.

Since the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, Nepalese prime ministers have been known to go on foreign trips immediately after their swearing in. The then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal visited China for the Olympics in 2008 less than a month into his tenure.

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Until KP Sharma Oli's last tenure as PM, India was the almost universal first stop for a new Nepali PM. Since 2014, five of the six prime ministers visited India first.

Shah's decision may signal a cautious approach to foreign relations amid jostle by the USA and China for influence in the Himalayan State, according to Kathmandu-based sources.