Alberto Rubio
Since the establishment in 2017 of the Nepalese Embassy in Spain “there has been a significant increase in cooperation and collaboration between the two countries,” said Ambassador Sarmila Parajuli Dhakal yesterday during the reception she hosted to celebrate the Asian country’s National Day.
Nepal commemorates every September 19 the promulgation of its new Constitution in 2015, which institutionalises a democratic federal republican system and guarantees civil liberties and the concept of rule of law. Aspects of which the ambassador said she was “proud” before an audience that included representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spanish companies, and heads of mission from China, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Russia, Slovenia, Ireland and Albania, among others.
In the bilateral chapter, Sarmila Parajuli Dhakal recalled that Spain and Nepal established diplomatic relations in May 1968, marked since then “by goodwill, mutual understanding and cooperation”. These relations, he added, “reached even greater heights with the exchange of high-level bilateral visits”, such as those of the King and Queen of Nepal to Spain (1983); the King and Queen of Spain to Nepal (1987); and the visit of the then Prince Felipe and Princess Leticia in the year 2000.
After thanking Spain for having been “one of the first EU countries to send aid against Covid-19 to Nepal“, the ambassador expressed her desire to “strengthen bilateral ties” between the two countries and expressed her willingness to “explore new avenues of collaboration, “especially in trade, tourism, sports, agriculture and culture”.
Sarmila Parajuli Dhakal, after recalling the importance of the declaration of twinning between Madrid and Kathmandu, neither missed the opportunity to point out the “special connection with the mountains” that unites the two countries “despite being very far apart geographically. A “people-to-people” relationship that is reflected in the 20,000 Spanish tourists who visit Nepal and the 10,000 Nepalese who live in Spain.
