Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Kamal Thapa on Tuesday raised the issue of the recent European Union (EU)-India statement on Nepal during a regular meeting with the European ambassadors.
Thapa asked the diplomats if the EU had changed its stand on Nepal's new constitution. The Head of Delegation of the EU to Nepal, Ambassador Rensje Teerink, reportedly said that the EU's stand on the Nepali constitution was unchanged.
Thapa's press adviser Mohan Shrestha confirmed that the EU-India statement was also discussed at the meeting. But he downplayed it, saying the ambassadors had not been "summoned" to express Nepal's displeasure with the statement, and the EU ambassadors were not asked to clarify the statement.
"It was just a regular meeting, and the EU-India statement was just one of the issues discussed," he told Nepali Times.
Last Wednesday India and the EU issued a joint statement during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Brussels which among other matters stressed 'the need for a lasting and inclusive constitutional settlement in Nepal that will address the remaining constitutional issues in a time bound manner, and promote political stability and economic growth'.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted swiftly with a blunt statement calling it 'interference in Nepal's internal affairs … that hurt the sentiments of the Nepali people'. A day later, a cabinet meeting also declared that the statement was 'uncalled for'. Deputy Prime Minister CP Mainali told journalists that the EU and Indian ambassadors would be 'summoned' on this issue.
However, a top diplomat from one EU member in Kathmandu told Nepali Times that his country did not agree with the EU statement and that his government was not consulted. He added: "I don't know how Nepal was added to the statement."