Why didn’t Nepal Join the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS)? A Critical Assessment of Nepal’s Foreign Policy Response to IPS

• Authors: Gaurav Bhattarai , Prakash Bista , Sudip Adhikari

Abstracts

EN

The significance of maritime interactions has impacted coastal and landlocked countries. Nepal’s response to the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) signifies the same. For Nepal, crossing seas was culturally associated with sin as an objective to fulfill the isolationist policy adopted until the political change of 1950. As such, Nepal’s interaction with the sea was not so friendly in the past. However, these historical shreds of evidence cannot suffice as the reason behind her denial of joining the IPS. Most of the available literature divulges the sensitive geographical position of Nepal in the context of the rise of China and the projection of a ‘new Cold War’ for its reluctance to join the Indo-Pacific strategy. However, they fail to probe into the domestic intricacies contributing to the hesitation. In this context, this paper primarily tries to dwell upon the actors and factors that have influenced Nepal’s dubiety in joining the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Thus, this paper aims to fulfill two objectives. First, to analyze the role of geographical sensitivity, and second, to scrutinize the domestic interplay of things. As exploratory qualitative research, this study reviews the official documents, agreements, statements, speeches, and reports from think tanks and newspapers to hypothesize that besides external factors there are integral internal elements that have played a part in Nepal’s denial to join the strategic partnership.

Keywords

EN

Indo-Pacific Strategy; Nepal; China; United States; geopolitics

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Azja-Pacyfik
• Year: 2022
• Issue: XXVI
• Pages: 27-43

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Gaurav Bhattarai

• Department of International Relations and Diplomacy (DIRD), Tribhuvan University, Katmandu, Nepal

• https://orcid.org/0000000314715763

author

Prakash Bista

• Department of International Relations and Diplomacy (DIRD), Tribhuvan University, Katmandu, Nepal

author

Sudip Adhikari

• Department of International Relations and Diplomacy (DIRD), Tribhuvan University, Katmandu, Nepal

Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/ap2022.2.02

Biblioteka Nauki

2154704