Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has instructed downsizing of the delegation for the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
PM Dahal has instructed Chief Secretary Baikuntha Aryal to remove names from the list of 24 finalized earlier and bring it down to five.
“The country’s economic state is also not so good now. There is no meaning of taking a big delegation in such times,” a Baluwatar source quoted PM Dahal as saying. “Chief Secretary will bring the proposal of downsizing the delegation in the Cabinet meeting Tuesday.”
The delegation finalized earlier included 10 persons from PM Dahal’s personal secretariat alone including PM’s Chief Political Advisor Haribol Gajurel, Personal Secretaries Ganga Dahal and Ramesh Malla, Press Advisor Govinda Acharya, Personal Photographer Pradip Onta, Personal Videographer Navaraj Dahal, Personal Doctor Yuvaraj Sharma and three security persons.
Only one personal secretary, a photographer and two security persons will now accompany PM Dahal with the identity of the personal secretary yet to be decided. Ganga Dahal is also daughter of PM Dahal. She may eventually accompany her father, according to the source.
This delegation will be the smallest PM-led delegation ever for the UNGA.
The names of Chief Secretary Aryal, PM’s Chief Political Advisor Haribol Gajurel and National Security Advisor Shankar Das Bairagi, and a few joint secretaries and under secretaries from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers who were earlier in the delegation will also be removed.
A separate team led by Foreign Minister NP Saud will leave for America on Tuesday.
PM Dahal is set to leave for the United States on September 16 and is scheduled to address the 78th UNGA in New York on September 21.
He is also scheduled to participate in different programs including the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, Climate Ambition Summit and other programs while in New York.
He will also attend the banquet dinner to be hosted by US President Joe Biden in honor of different heads of state and government visiting New York to attend the UNGA. He will also meet different dignitaries on the sidelines of the UNGA.
After concluding his US visit, Dahal will fly directly to China on September 22.
