Fifty five years ago, two courageous leaders embarked on a historic path: On 1st June 1960, the Ancient Himalayan country of Nepal and the newly born State of Israel established diplomatic relations to explore new avenues for cooperation and friendship. The two leaders were late B.P. Koirala, the first elected Prime Minister of Nepal and late David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, making Nepal the first South Asian nation to have diplomatic ties with Israel at that time. Since then, both nations have been enjoying friendly and cooperative bilateral relations in many fields of mutual interests, among those are exchange of knowledge and trainings in agriculture, medicine, health, water, sanitation and other areas within the framework of MASHAV (Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation) trainings and other human resource development programs as well as exchange of visits at various levels including high level visits.
The recent devastating earthquake in Nepal has forced the people of Nepal to face many daunting challenges. We believe that these challenges could be converted into strengths, acts of resilience and opportunities. As a friendly nation, Israel has been doing its best together with the Government of Nepal to assist a friend in need. As an indication of the friendship between our two countries, Israel responded to the call for international assistance made by the Government of Nepal by deploying its search and rescue teams as well as medical services through the Israeli Field Hospital which was flown immediately after the disaster. In addition, Israel dispatched a high level engineering team to Nepal to provide their expertise by inspecting hundreds of buildings and structures affected by the earthquake. Similarly, teams of psychologists and medical clowns provided their services to the affected people. Israel’s cooperation with the Government of Nepal in this matter will continue in the future.
The people and Government of Nepal have profusely appreciated the efforts done by the Israeli teams in Nepal while the country was reeling under the devastation of the earthquakes. At the same time, it would be noteworthy that Nepal, on the other hand, has extended its friendly support to Israel in the past by sending peacekeeping forces to contribute to the peace process in the Middle East as well as working with Israel at many international forums such as the United Nations.
On the happy occasion of the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, may we extend our warmest appreciation to the peoples and governments of Nepal and Israel as well as prominent individuals throughout the years for their contributions in nurturing and promoting the prosperous relations between the two friendly countries.
Finally, we wish to express our conviction that the Embassy of Nepal in Israel and the Embassy of Israel in Nepal would proudly continue to work together in their respective fields to further strengthen the existing relations between the nations. We are confident that the everlasting friendship between our peoples and governments would further grow and flourish in the years ahead.