A Geographer among Diplomats

N 1970 the Charge d'Affaires of Nepal in Bangkok read an article of mine on landlocked states in the Nepal Review. He wrote me about it and sent me a copy of an article he had written on the subject, asking me for my comments. Our correspondence continued through the years as he rose in the ranks of his government and I expanded my interest to other aspects of the Law of the Sea. He paid a brief visit to our home last year and mentioned the possibility of having me come to Nepal as an adviser. When he returned home he was appointed Secretary of Industry and Commerce and formally requested the United Nations Development Programme office in Kathmandu to bring me there under one of their aid programs. The executing agency was UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which actually recruited me and to which I was responsible. The Nepalis needed help this past spring and summer because their 1971 Treaty of Trade and Transit with India was expiring on August 14 and they wanted to negotiate a much better treaty (or, if possible, two separate treaties) to replace it. Nepal is clearly at a disadvantage in such negotiations, and they wanted the reinforcement of a foreign expert who could contribute information and ideas to their own pool of knowledge and experience. The United Nations has for a number of years been developing programs to help the poorer landlocked states improve their transit arrangements, so it was able to supply the needed assistance within the existing budget. I learned from the Secretary only after my arrival in Kathmandu that he had had a difficult time convincing UNCTAD that a geographer was the proper person for the job rather than an economist or a lawyer or a political scientist. When I arrived in Kathmandu on May 19 I found already functioning an interministerial committee that had prepared some preliminary materials to be used in developing Nepal's position in the forthcoming negotiations with India. The committee was headed by the Secretary of Industry and Commerce, who would also head the Nepali delegation in the negotiations. Other members were high-ranking officials and experts in the fields of international law, finance, trade, transportation, industry, customs and excise, and foreign relations

Economic geography · Geographer · Geography · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · International Development and Aid · International Maritime Law Issues