The Nepal government has recommended Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal as the Nepali Ambassador to Canada.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Friday took a decision to this effect, sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Nepalkhabar.
However, the government has not officially announced Paudyal's recommendation for the post. The government will now seek a written agreement with Canada on his behalf. Once the written consent is obtained, the President will announce his appointment.
After the announcement, Paudyal will take the oath of office and secrecy from the President and come to Canada to discharge his duties as the ambassador.
Paudyal, who was appointed as Foreign Secretary on October 9, 2020, is retiring soon.
He is also a former Nepali ambassador to Pakistan. After returning from Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, he served as the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ambassadorial post has been lying vacant at the Nepali Embassy in Ottawa, Canada since last April when the then ambassador Bhrigu Dhungana returned home after completing his four-year term.
After Dhungana returned home, Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs Rojina Tamrakar was handling the duties as Acting Ambassador. In the second week of July, the government recommended the appointment of six joint secretaries of foreign affairs in New York, Geneva, Thailand, Kuwait, France, and the UAE.
However, the ambassadorial post in Canada was lying vacant. During the period, there had been a discussion about recommending Foreign Secretary Paudyal as the ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations.
But the government appointed Foreign Affairs Joint Secretary Lok Bahadur Thapa to that post. He arrived in New York a month ago and has already assumed his office.
