The top United Nations political official is heading to India next week, followed by a visit to Nepal to discuss the country’s stalled peace process, it was announced today.
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe will be in India on 9 March for a one-day meeting with Government officials for discussions on a range of regional and international issues related to the UN.
He will then head to Nepal from 10 to 12 March to visit the UN political mission there, known as UNMIN, which was set up at the request of the Government in 2007 to support the peace process, as well as to monitor the management of arms and armed personnel of the former Royal Nepal Army and the Maoists. Its current mandate runs until 15 May.
While in Kathmandu, he will also meet with senior Government officials and political party leaders “to discuss the state of the peace process and encourage forward movement in the period ahead,” UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York.
The visit comes as the peace process that ended the country’s 10-year civil war remains largely stalled, threatened by tensions and mistrust between Maoists, the Government and the army.
In his report to the Security-Council in January, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the political positions of these groups has “hardened at the opposing ends of the political spectrum, which has seriously eroded the common middle ground that had, from the outset, defined the peace process and remained its driving strength.”