The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) organised a meeting with the heads of foreign diplomatic missions based in Kathmandu on Sunday in a bid to win the confidence of the international community for the royal proclamation of Friday.

At the meeting organised at MoFA, acting foreign secretary Hira Bahadur Thapa briefed the ambassadors and representatives of donor agencies about the royal address. He welcomed the reactions of various countries on the royal address, reports said.

Admitting that authorities could not provide sufficient number of curfew passes to the officials of diplomatic missions, Thapa pledged to make better arrangements should there be similar situation.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, British ambassador to Nepal Keith G Bloomfield said the royal address was aimed at bridging the gap between him and the political parties but “it is clearly not enough”. He said it was not for the UK government to suggest anything and added that the parties and the King should find solution to the problems.

Most of the heads of foreign diplomatic missions including Indian ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, Chinese ambassador Sun Heping and UN representative to Nepal Mathew Kahane were present at the meeting.

A large section of the international community including the US, EU and the UN instantly welcomed the King’s address in which he announced to return the power to the people and called on the agitating seven-party alliance (SPA) to name their prime minister.

The SPA that rejected the King’s offer describing it a ploy to subvert their ongoing pro-democracy movement has said the international community’s reaction was hasty and that it did not grasp the sentiment and the spirit of the masses protesting for ‘total democracy’.

In what is seen as its amended response to the royal proclamation, southern neighbour India lately said the King’s offer was not enough and that India was in favour of the decision of Nepali people. nepalnews.com mk Apr 24 06