By developing the capacity of Nepal's think tanks, for this purpose, a full-time group should be established there and its capacity development, and for this work, strong cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the think tank, the guidance of the ministry and diplomatic facilitation are necessary.
The United Nations has decided to celebrate the year 2025 as the 'International Year of Glacier Conservation'. On the special initiative of our Prime Minister, the Government of Nepal is organizing 'Sagarmatha Samvad' from 2nd to 4th May 2082 in Kathmandu with the aim of climate change and protecting mountains.
In 2019, during the current Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's tenure, preparations were being made to hold the Everest Dialogue on April 2 to 4, 2020, but the event was postponed due to the Covid epidemic.
The purpose of naming this dialogue the Everest Dialogue is to face this challenge by raising awareness in the world as more than 1.9 billion people who depend on its water are directly affected by the melting of mountains including Mount Everest due to climate change.
Since the Sagarmatha dialogue program is the 'brain child' of the current Prime Minister, it has been announced by the Prime Minister that the first edition will be on the topic of 'Climate Change, Himalayas and the Future of Humanity'. This view of the Prime Minister has been made public among the representatives of diplomatic missions, international organizations and mass media in Nepal.
It is not that there are no different platforms in the world to discuss such issues, but our Prime Minister believes that this Everest dialogue will provide a different kind of attractive platform to the world. Nepal has not only the experience of resolving an armed conflict raging for 10 years in an environment ravaged by violent armed conflicts and wars in different parts of the world, we also have the unique and unique experience of ending the monarchy that ruled for almost 250 years in a peaceful manner without bloodshed. Likewise, Nepal is the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, the promoter of world peace. In addition, Nepal is also a major country that contributes to world peace by sending the largest number of "peacekeeping troops" to conflict areas through the United Nations.
Nepal's foreign policy is based on the principle of non-alignment and 'friendship with all, enmity with none', so it is one of the best places to discuss the many problems of the world, to have a deep dialogue and to come up with options. From the point of view of climate change, since the Himalayas are the source of water for nearly 2 billion people, and 8 of the 9 highest peaks in the world are in Nepal and the remaining hundreds of mountains are melting and turning into black peaks, Nepal can be the best place for such a dialogue.
Various countries and organizations are regularly debating and communicating about national concerns and multiple crises through such national and international platforms. Among such forums, the ``Baao Forum for Asia'' organized regularly by China and the ``Raisina Dialogue'' organized regularly by India are the forums experienced by many Nepalis.
Everest dialogue on important issues of national interest is regularized and institutionalized by Nepal every 2-3 years and it is more likely to be successful if it is conducted in an integrated manner under the guidance of the steering committee, keeping it outside the control of government employees and actively participating the 'think tanks' in the country. In this context, there is room for Nepal to learn a lot from the 'Raisina Dialogue' which the Indian government has been conducting for a long time.
I also had the opportunity to participate in the fifth edition of the 'Raisina Dialogue' organized by the Ministry of External Affairs and its 'Think Tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF)' from April 13 to 16, 2021, as the Executive Chairman of the Policy Research Foundation as per the decision of the Government of Nepal.
The original theme of that edition was 'Viral World: Outbreaks, Outliers and Out of Control'. But the debate was not limited to the main issue. All areas of India's strategic interests were covered. This dialogue was the basic roadmap for deciding India's strategy and tactics.
The Prime Minister of India, the President of Rwanda, the Prime Minister of Denmark and the President of the European Commission were the key speakers in this dialogue.
Similarly, there were 92 speakers and 30 facilitators from different countries in the program. There were a total of 37 sessions in this program which lasted for four days. Most of the topics discussed in the total of 37 sessions were in terms of India's strategic importance, which could be used to test the strategies of India and other countries and to be able to share or help to find ways of strategic cooperation with them in the future.
On the occasion of the dialogue, in one way or another, directly or indirectly, the political, military and administrative persons of the power countries made a presentation about China and its economic development and the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative, the dominance it is gaining around the world through trade and the influence it has on other power countries, the strategic partnership for the Indo-Pacific region in the context of the growing geo-political complexity in Asia, the Quad provision, etc.
Sagarmatha Samvad is a permanent, high-level and regular event, so it is effective when the team deployed for it is strong, competent, committed and full-time. A strong group of ORF was mobilized by the Ministry of External Affairs of India for Raisina Dialogue.
Developing the capacity of Nepal's think tanks for this purpose, establishing a full-time group there and developing its capacity, and for this work, strong cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the think tank, and the ministry's vision and diplomatic facilitation are necessary. Hopefully, this Everest dialogue, which Nepal is going to hold for the first time, will be a complete success.
