The US-led attack on Iraq has not only undermined the role of the United Nations, but has also completely ignored its charter and past decisions. In some ways it has pushed the UN to a degree of irrelevance. But the Nepal government's reaction towards the US assault marks a massive deflection in our foreign policy. It completely changed after the Minister for Information and Communications Ramesh Nath Pandey-a self-proclaimed expert on foreign affairs-openly supported the US-led war.

Foreign affairs experts see this as a serious mis-step in national policy too. Other than highlighting this government's readiness to bow to the powers-that-be, the emerging threat now is that Nepal will fall into a series of similar problems and challenges. Why is the government committing such a grave mistake by ignoring our own traditional patterns for foreign affairs? We don't see any alternative to a foreign policy of standing firmly in favour of a strong United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).