Center 4: Center for Foreign Policy and Strategic Affairs

Mr. Durga Prasad Bhattarai, bonr in the district of Bhojpur, was Nepal’s Foreign Secretary from 2011 to 2013. He has served as Nepal’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2013-2018) in New York with concurrent accreditations as Ambassador to Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Earlier, he was Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives (2005-2009), and President of the Colombo Plan Council (2005-2006). 

During his tenure for more than three decades in Nepal’s public service, he has worked for national airlines, university, cabinet secretariat, planning commission secretariat, and the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign affairs. He has also represented Nepal at a broad range of bilateral, regional and multilateral meetings and diplomatic conferences; represented Asia-Pacific region in numerous elected leadership positions in the UN General Assembly, steered Nepal’s successful election to the Human Rights Council, CEDAW, CAT (all firsts for Nepal), and ECOSOC, among others; and coordinated Nepal’s positions on UN reforms and in the run-up to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

Mr. Bhattarai received a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Business Administration degrees from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and a Master of Regional Development from the Institute of Social Studies, the Netherlands.

Professor at the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy, Tribhuvan University, Dr. Khadga K.C. has acquired Master’s degree in political Science from TU in 1993, and obtained his second Master’s degree in International Relations, PhD and Post-Doctoral Research from Nagasaki University, Japan under Japanese Government Scholarship.

He is a Japan Foundation Fellow (2012 July- March 2013), MONBUSHO Fellow of Government of Japan (2002-2009), US State Department`s SUSI Fellow (April-June, 2012), a Guest Professor at Leshan Normal University, Leshan, Sichuan Province, China (2016 April onward) and a Visiting Faculty at Nepali Army Command and Staff College, APF Command and Staff College, and Nepali Army Higher Command and Management since 2010.

He edited Journal of Political Science during 1996-2001 and 2009-2013, and Journal of International Affairs between 2016 and 2020. He is in editorial board of Journal of International Affairs, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Journal of Asian Political Affairs, Department of Political Science, Chittagong University, Bangladesh and Policy Review Journal, Policy Research Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal. He has contributed numerous research articles in national and international journals in the areas of modern Japanese political thought, foreign policy and diplomatic relations of Nepal and Japan, civil military relations of Nepal, Chinese/Japanese foreign aid to Nepal, and South China Sea and BRI.  He has studied, attended conferences and made short courses and engaged in research in Bangladesh, Canada, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UK, UAE and the USA. 

Lt. Gen. Bala Nanda Sharma comes from army background.  He joined Nepali Army (then Royal Nepalese Army) in 1969 and has gained long learning and work experience, both in Nepal and abroad.

He served Nepali Army for 39 years in various positions such as Assistant Senior Military Officer in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Brigadier Major in Infantry Brigade, Chief Instructor in the Royal Nepalese Army School, and the Staff College Commander of an Infantry Battalion, Defence Attaché to the USSR, Director of Military training of the Nepali Army, Master General of Ordnance (MGO), among others. He also served as the Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Force in the Golan Heights.

In May 2021, the Government of Nepal appointed him the Chief Executive Officer of the COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC).

Ms. Lila Nyaichyai acquired a PhD. in international relations from the Yunnan University, China in 2019. Her Ph.D. research was on “Chinese Public Diplomacy in Nepal”. Currently She is affiliated to Tribhuvan University as an Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science. She is also associated with the Center for Nepalese and Asian Studies (CNAS) as a member of China Desk. She has been supervising MPhil. students’ research for Nepal Open University, Sociology and Political Science Department. She was a team member for the international research on “Satisfaction of Workers in Chinese Companies” in 2019 April conducted by the Yunnan University and the national research on “Evaluative Study of Community Police Partnership” in 2019 conducted by CNAS.

General Himalaya Thapa earned his Master’s in Diplomatic Studies (with distinction) from University of Westminster (UK) in 2008, and Master’s of Science in National Security Strategy from National Defense University, Washington D.C., USA in 2011.

General Himalaya Thapa joined then the Royal Nepalese Army in 1978 and went to the prestigious Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK for his Officer’s Cadet training.  He has undergone several professional courses from Nepal, Pakistan, UK, USA and Germany. Some of the prominent courses are General Command and Staff College from the Fùhrungsakademie der Bundeswehr, Hamburg, Germany, and National War College from National Defense University, Washington D.C., USA. He has extensive experience in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNIFIL-Lebanon, UNPROFOR- Former Yugoslavia, UNOMSIL- Sierra Leone and UNMIN – Nepal). He has also served as Military Attaché for UK and France (2005-2008). 

Presently, he is an Advisory Board Member for Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA), Visiting Faculty for Masters in International Relations and Diplomacy (Tribhuvan University) and also a Member of Think Tank for Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI).  He is involved in various track II diplomacy and social organizations.  He served in the Nepali Army for nearly 38 years holding key appointments, such as Director General of Military Operations, Commander of Valley Division, Adjutant General, Quarter Master General and Military Assistant to Chief of Army Staff (COAS). He was decorated with Jana Sewa Shree, and with various career decorations and medals from Nepal and foreign countries.

Born in the district of Arghakhachi in 1953, Dr. Bhattarai holds a PhD in International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. Dr. Bhattarai has obtained Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Banaras Hindu University, India and Bachelor of Law from the Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He did Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations and Development from the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), the Netherlands.

Dr. Bhattarai joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983. He was First Secretary (Political Affairs) at the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi from 1991 to 1994, and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Nepal in Washington D.C. from 1998 to 2003. Dr. Bhattarai was appointed Nepal’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Geneva in 2009 and Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation with concurrent accreditations to the Republic of Italy and the Republic of Croatia. During his assignment in Geneva, he headed the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) group within the UN system from 2009 to 2012. Dr. Bhattarai was Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Ministers of Nepal in 2014-2015 and 2017-2018. Currently, he is a faculty at the Institute of Crisis Management Studies, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.

Born in Kathmandu in 1938, Mr. Kedar Bhakta Shrestha earned his Master’s Degree in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of Bombay in 1959 and graduation from Tri-Chandra College in 1955.

Mr Shrestha is a former Foreign Secretary and Nepal’s former Ambassador to the EU and Benelux countries (1997-2002) and the United States of America (2004-2006). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1964. During his diplomatic career, Mr. Shrestha was first posted to the to-be-established embassy in Bonn in 1965. He served as First Secretary in Nepal’s Permanent Mission to the UN, New York from 1973-77, and as Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission in Nepal’s Embassy in Washington. D.C from 1980-84. In the Ministry, he was assigned to various Divisions and headed North-East and South East Asia Divisions. He was Nepal’s First Director in the SAARC Secretariat of Joint Secretary rank, where he worked from 1987 to 1992. Mr Shrestha was appointed as Foreign Secretary in 1994 and served till 1997 before his ambassadorial assignment to the EU.

Professor Surya P. Subedi is a Barrister at Three Stone Chambers, Lincoln’s Inn, London, Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds and a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. He is a leading international lawyer whose competence spans a number of areas of international law, including international trade and investment law, international land and maritime boundaries, international watercourses law and international human rights law. His expertise in these areas of law combines teaching, research, practicing law, and high-level positions with responsibilities for policy formulation and advice. He has advised a number of governments on international legal matters and acted as a counsel in cases before the International Court of Justice. He has published extensively in international law.

 He was awarded the highest degree – the Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) by the University of Oxford in 2019 in recognition of his original contribution to the development of international law. Prior to this, he had obtained his PhD in international law at Oxford (known as DPhil at Oxford) with a prize in 1993. He was elected to the Institut de Droit International in 2011 and made a Membre Titulaire in 2015. Professor Subedi has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia between 2009 and 2015. He has been an expert member of the Task Force on Investment Policy of the World Economic Forum in Davos.