KATHMANDU, APRIL 27
The 6th meeting of the Nepal-United Kingdom Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) was held at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London on 26 April 2023. In the meeting, the two sides reviewed the overall state of the Nepal-UK relationship and deliberated on enhancing the engagements in various areas of mutual interest.
The delegations exchanged views on over two centuries-old friendship and cooperation and took stock of the progress made in major aspects of the bilateral relations, including development cooperation and priorities, trade, investment and tourism, education and human resource development, consular matters and people-to-people linkages, the British Gurkha issues, climate change and sustainable development as well as working together on agendas of mutual interest in multilateral forums, according to the statement issued by Nepali Embassy in London. The meeting reviewed the ongoing talks on Ex-Gurkha issues and agreed to continue the discussion towards addressing the grievances, the statement added.
"The UK side highlighted the changing shape of the UK's development cooperation portfolio and shared the priority areas of future cooperation with Nepal that would include support in the transition to a middle-income country and progress towards sustainable development goals, help in mobilizing investment and climate finance, support in expanding access to education, in particular girls' education. The Nepali side appreciated the valuable development cooperation provided by the United Kingdom as one of the largest development partners and emphasized the need for continuity and enhancement of such support at a critical time of graduation from the least developed country status."
The two sides agreed to work towards further consolidating and widening cooperation and engagements in productive sectors such as trade, investment, energy and tourism. It was also agreed that scaling up investment in Nepal's clean energy would not only foster economic growth but would also help address the agenda of climate change. The two sides also discussed the utilization of the investment windows such as British International Investment (BII) on various fronts including renewable energy and the information and communication sector, as well as the possibility of channelizing more resources from the British Investments Partnership (BIP).
The two sides renewed their willingness to cooperate on various matters of common interest at multilateral forums, such as advancing the agendas of climate change, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development, among others. The United Kingdom appreciated Nepal's contribution to UN peacekeeping as the second largest troops-providing country currently.
In a separate meeting, Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal and the Permanent Under-Secretary at FCDO Sir Philip Barton had a productive discussion on a range of topics including marking of the centenary of the Friendship Treaty, exchange of high-level visits, and bilateral cooperation, among other matters.
