Nepal and International Counter-Terrorism

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001349 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PREL NP SUBJECT: Nepal and International Counter-Terrorism Conventions REF: A) State 125639, B) 01 Kathmandu 2202 ¶1. Nepal is working to sign the Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CSFT) at an early date, Arjun Kant Mainali of the MFA's Division for the U.N., International Organizations and International Law told Poloff July 10. Mainali was responding to Poloff's report that the U.S. has now become a party to all twelve international counter-terrorism conventions (Ref A). ¶2. To date, Nepal has ratified or signed six of the twelve conventions (Ref B). The CSFT would be the seventh. Nepal's efforts to ratify both the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports and the Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives are still in the early stages. ¶3. As related Ref B, because Nepal does not produce or use nuclear material, it has not given priority to ratifying the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. Similarly, as a landlocked country Nepal is unlikely to act quickly on the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf and the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation. MALINOWSKI