--By Suraksha Adhikari

 

Diplomatic relations between Nepal and Israel were established on 1 June 1960. A year after that, in March, Israel established its embassy in Kathmandu. Nepal opened her Honorary Consulate General’s office in Israel in 1993 and embassy in 2007. Initially, the Nepali Ambassador to Egypt was accredited to Israel as well. Since the establishment of bilateral ties between both nations, Nepal has always backed Israel’s national interest in all international forums. 

 

Nepal is the first and until recently, the only country in South Asia to recognize the existence of Israel as a nation.  Nepal has maintained diplomatic relations and continues to support the right of Israel to exist within secure and internationally recognized boundaries. Nepal voted in favour of Israel, at the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), which upheld the right of all the states in the region to live in peace. Nepal has also welcomed every initiative from whatever quarter that seeks to resolve the Middle East problems like the Camp David Accord signed between Egypt and Israel in 1978 and the renewed peace process sponsored time to time by countries like the USA. 

 

Cooperation in Education and Culture

Israel has been providing massive cooperation to Nepal in education and culture sectors. Israel has been regularly providing scholarships to promising Nepali students to undergo Post Graduate courses in Agriculture and technical field. Israel has excelled well in technical education, and this has been benefiting Nepali students who enroll for it. Presently, some Nepalistudents have been pursuing post-graduate courses under the Hebrew University of Israel. Most of these students are  enrolled at the Rehovot College of Agriculture under the Hebrew University, and some others are enrolled at the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheeva. Three Nepali students were awarded scholarship to study at Israel’s most prestigious technical education center- Technion.

 

Cooperation in Agricultural 

Nepal has been receiving technical assistance from Israel for agricultural development. Both nations have agreed to contribute to the development of agriculture promote exchange of technical and scientific knowledge related to the agricultural sectors in both countries. The agreement provisions for exchange of research data, agricultural policy formulations and implementation, and approaches adopted to encourage cooperation between public and private sector stakeholders. This framework pact is expected to pave way for extension and deepening  of collaboration of both nations in agriculture sector in a mutually beneficially way. 

 

Human Resource Development

Israel has been considerably assisting Nepal in developing skillful human resources. It provided cooperation to establish the National Construction Company of Nepal and to install parachuting training facilities for the Nepal Army. Israel has been providing Nepal with short-term scholarships in various subjects particularly in areas related to agriculture, education, rural development, water resources, tourism, etc. Along with that Israeli experts have conducted several farm management, artificial insemination, irrigation, childhood education, workers, and cooperative biotechnology and farm machinery trainings and workshops 

 

Nepal has been supplying Israel with manpower. A number of Nepali citizens work in Israel and the demand persists. It is estimated that about 12,000 Nepali workers are residing in Israel, most of whom are women working as caregivers. However, Nepali workers were restricted to this lucrative destination in April of 2009. In its justification given to the Nepali embassy in Israel, Israel said that Nepali manpower agents had charged exorbitant fees to the workers, created nexus with Israel based Nepali brokers and sent low-skilled workers. The mission was recently informed that reopening its employment field to Nepali is not on the cards in the near future. But in that letter Israel government also said  that it would reopen the process of welcoming Nepali workers if the activities of manpower agents are ‘improved’, sources at the Ministry of Labor confirmed. 

 

During these 52 years of diplomatic relations both countries have built strong ties in agriculture, health, education, and in other various fields of cooperation. Eight thousand Israelis visited Nepal last year and the numbers have been increasing every year.  Parallel to that, 8000 Nepalis are working in Israel at the moment. Nepalis staying in Israel and Israelis visiting Nepal are impressed by the friendship, sympathy and popularity Nepal has in Israel and Israel has in Nepal.

 

Trade and investment

Trading between both nations has been unequal. Nepal’s total export to Israel amounted to NRs 6.64 million but imported goods amounting to NRs 613.31 million leading to a trade deficit of NRs 606.65 million in fiscal year 2008/09, Trade Promotion Centre of Nepal’s data show.

 

Tourism

There is an immense potential for enhancing tourism in both countries. This is further supported by the fact that Nepal is blessed with natural beauty, world popular high peaks including the tallest Mountain in earth Mt. Everest, adventurous tourist destinations and friendly people which Israeli citizens love most. Similarly, Israel has unique beauty of its own including the world’s lowest place on earth the Dead Sea, the unmatched salt water that keeps one automatically floating on the surface. Mostly younger Israelis visit Nepal and in 2009 a total of 5,879 of them visited Nepal. 

 

Agreements

A Protocol of Cooperation was signed between the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries and Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce in Tel Aviv on 25 June 1993 during the official visit of Israel by then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

 

Similarly, Government of Nepal and Government of Israel have signed a bilateral Air Service Agreement (ASA) (November 18th, 2002), bilateral 

agreement on Agriculture Cooperation (2010) and there are some other agreements in the offing. 

 

A Framework Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Agriculture was signed in March 2010 between the Government of the State of Israel and the Government of Nepal.