The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started assigning responsibilities to the joint secretaries who have returned to the country after completing their tenure as ambassadors.
Amrit Rai, the senior joint secretary of the ministry, has been given the responsibility of the North-East Asia Division, which is considered one of the most important.
This Division looks after important countries like Japan and South Korea along with Nepal's northern neighbor
China. Rai was previously the permanent representative of Nepal to the United Nations in New York. He returned to the ministry only last month after completing his four-year term as the UN mission.
Prior to this, he was the Nepali Ambassador to South Africa. While the initial preparations for Prime Minister Prachanda's visit to China are going on, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is about to assign its senior joint secretary Rai the responsibility of the Division that deals with China affairs in particular. Another senior joint secretary at the Ministry, Lok Bahadur Thapa, is currently handling the responsibility of that division.
However, the government has proposed him as a permanent representative to the United Nations. The parliamentary hearing committee has also endorsed his name for ambassadorial appointment. As an agrimo is not required for the UN Permanent Representative, Thapa is being appointed soon. "By today or tomorrow, the President will appoint Thapa as Nepal's permanent representative to the United Nations," a foreign ministry source said.
On the other hand, Rai is getting the responsibility of the North-East Division, which will remain vacant once Thapa is appointed as permanent representative. Even though he returned to Nepal a month after completing his four-year tenure as the head of the Permanent UN Mission, Rai was not able to get responsibility in the ministry. Such a situation was created when no division was left vacant due to the delay in the appointment of ambassadors.
Also, the other joint secretaries who returned to the ministry after holding the responsibilities of the ambassador and were promoted recently have not been able to get the responsibilities in the ministry. Krishna Prasad Dhakal, Bhrigu Dhungana, Ganesh Dhakal are among those who have not yet got the responsibilities.
Similarly, recently promoted joint secretaries Sharad Raj Aran, Surendra Thapa and Laxman Khanal have yet to be assigned responsibilities, sources have said.
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