Now Reading: Nepal minister flags Himalayan melt common threat to India China Bhutan
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Nepal minister flags Himalayan melt common threat to India China Bhutan
Nepal minister flags Himalayan melt common threat to India China Bhutan
Nepal's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shisir Khanal, has described the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas as a common threat to India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, calling on the four countries to…
Nepal's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shisir Khanal, has described the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas as a common threat to India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, calling on the four countries to set aside their differences and work together on the shared ecological challenge.
Speaking in Kathmandu, Khanal said the countries are "connected by ecology" and that environmental cooperation is essential. He argued that the impact of glacial melt is not limited by political boundaries, and that the region's water security is at stake. The Himalayan range holds the third-largest deposit of ice and snow in the world, after the Arctic and Antarctic.
The minister did not announce any specific follow-up mechanism. The four countries have no formal climate coordination platform currently, though some bilateral water-sharing agreements exist. No further diplomatic meetings on the issue have been announced yet.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The Hindu Kush Himalaya region stores more ice than any place outside the poles and supplies water to nearly two billion people across eight countries. India's National Action Plan on Climate Change already identifies the Himalayan glacier melt as a threat to water security. What is at stake is not just seasonal river flow but the long-term viability of hydropower projects and irrigation that depend on steady glacial melt. The next multilateral forum where this common threat is likely to receive a formal agenda is the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), though the body has been largely inactive since 2016. The real test will be whether the countries named can produce a joint monitoring mechanism and a shared disaster-response protocol. The next ministerial-level climate dialogue among these nations has no confirmed date as of now.
Source: ndtv.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
