Former Foreign Minister NP Saud on Tuesday said Nepal needs to find a fine balance between values and pragmatism.

“With an uncertain world order in the future with new geopolitical changes, Nepal needs to find a fine balance between our values and pragmatism” said Saud while speaking at a seminar on ‘Contextualizing Nepal’s Foreign Policy and Infrastructure Diplomacy’ organised by the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy.

Saud opined that Nepal should seek partnership with any friendly country for the pursuit of enhanced connectivity and critical infrastructure development.

Former ambassador Madhu Raman Acharya delivered a keynote speech, in which he observed that Nepali people’s aspirations of development cannot be fulfilled without a dynamic, principled, independent and consensus-based foreign policy that strives to expand national interest and responds to the changing external environment.

The speeches were followed by panel discussions. The first was on ‘Contextualizing Nepal’s Foreign Policy in the Changing Context,’ which was moderated by Ajaya Bhadra Khanal (Research Director, CESIF).

The panellists included former ambassador Dinesh Bhattarai, Akhilesh Upadhyay, Apekshya Shah and Niha Pandey. The panel discussed Nepal’s foreign policy in the context of the domestic political instability and competition between India and China.

The second panel discussion ‘Navigating Geopolitics and Leveraging Infrastructure for Development’ included Rameshore Khanal, Lal Shankar Ghimire, Dinesh Kumar Ghimire and Govinda Raj Pokharel as panellists and was moderated by Arpan Gelal, Research Coordinator at CESIF.

The seminar also aimed to delve into the motivations and implications of foreign engagement in infrastructures in Nepal and build consensus on how Nepal can best leverage foreign interests, the organiser said.