UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is arriving on a four-day visit to Nepal if there is no dramatic change in world politics due to Israel-Hamas war.
Secretary General Guterres is coming to visit Nepal for four days from next Friday to Monday (October 13-16).
"It is not clear how the Israel-Hamas conflict will progress, but it is estimated that such a complicated situation will not be created," said an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Therefore, we are preparing for his visit."
According to the ministry sources, Secretary General Guterres will land at Tribhuvan International Airport on Friday afternoon and will depart from Nepal on Monday morning.
He will arrive in Kathmandu by a regular flight of an international airline flying to Kathmandu. Although it is planned to visit three tourist places during his four-day visit to Nepal, he is likely to visit only two places.
Lumbini and Pokhara for sure
Apart from the first and second Secretary Generals Trygve Lie and Dag Hammarskjold respectively, six former UN Secretary Generals have visited Nepal. All Secretaries General visits have one thing in common. That is - during their visit to Nepal, they have reached Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha.
Since the United Nations is a recognized international organization established for the establishment of peace in the world and the Buddha's teachings are also related to the establishment of peace, Nepal has brought the visiting Secretary Generals to Lumbini.
Another coincidence is that the third Secretary General of the United Nations, U Thant, to visit Nepal was not only a citizen of Burma, which was predominantly Buddhist, but also a Buddhist himself.
After his visit to Nepal, Nepal started preparing the Lumbini Development Master Plan. Secretary General Guterres will also go to Lumbini, following in the footsteps of U Thant and his predecessors.
The government of Nepal has made a plan for Secretary General Guterres to visit the tourist city of Pokhara in addition to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. Although all the Secretary Generals who come to Nepal have visited Lumbini, most of them have not visited Pokhara.
Mt Everest sightseeing
As the temperature that has increased with climate change has the greatest impact on the environment of the Himalayan regions of Nepal and other countries, Nepal has been raising this issue with priority in international forums.
Secretary General Guterres was also planning to visit the Everest region to directly observe the impact of climate change on the Himalayan region.
According to sources, it was planned to take Secretary General Guterres to Kalapatthar, the foot of Mount Everest. A meeting of the Council of Ministers was also organized there when Madhav was the Prime Minister of Nepal to draw the world's attention to the effects of climate change.
Although there were plans to bring Secretary-General Guterres to Kalapathar, it has now been postponed. As winter has set in, the plan to visit the foot of Everest has been postponed due to the assessment that the weather may be unfavorable.
However, Secretary General Guterres will observe Nepali snow chains including Mt Everest.
"According to the plan so far, even if it is by mountain flight, he will observe the picturesque snow ranges of Nepal," said the source, "he is also interested in this."
Secretary General Guterres is coming to Nepal at the invitation of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda’. Prime Minister Prachanda had invited him to visit Nepal during the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
