Nepal could become BRICS-South Asia connectivity bridge

Today, Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in New Delhi for the two-day BRICS summit, the acronym was coined from the initials of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). South Africa joined as a full member in 2011, turning BRIC into BRICS.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are meeting together on the same platform for the first time in 10 years for the 18th summit of the BRICS, and at a time, when the world is witnessing a war in Ukraine and Iran.
Currently, BRICS has 11 full members: Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE became full members in 2024, while Indonesia became a full member in 2025.
Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam are the 10 Partner Countries in the group. With the expansion of BRICS, around 30 other countries have also expressed interest in joining the group.
For the two-day summit in New Delhi, influential world leaders from 21 countries and few outreach invitees and other participating representative are in New Delhi, where they will discuss on key global issues including global governance, multilateralism, trade and investment, technology, food and energy security, healthcare, disaster resilience and critical supply chains.
Held under India’s BRICS chairmanship this year, the summit’s main theme is ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.
On the first day of the summit, a closed-door session among BRICS member states will be held on ‘Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism.’ The leaders will then visit the ‘Bharat Innovates’ exhibition at the Bharat Mandapam. The first day’s program will conclude with a joint tree-planting ceremony and a dinner hosted by the host Indian Prime Minister Modi.
On the second day, tomorrow, Prime Minister Modi will welcome representatives of 10 Partner Countries, along with leaders of the BRICS member states, to an open session. The session, titled ‘Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth,’ will be attended by representatives from Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

What is BRICS for Nepal?
As the global geopolitical architecture fractures, giving way to a multipolar order, Nepal finds itself standing at a delicate yet defining juncture. For decades, the nation’s foreign policy mantra has been one of ‘amity with all,’ often translated into a cautious balancing act between its two massive neighbors. However, the expansion of BRICS, first agreed at Johannesburg in 2023 and subsequently bringing Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia into the group signals a tectonic shift in the Global South's economic consolidation. For Nepal, this is not merely a spectator sport. It is an invitation to re-evaluate its strategic leverage. The question is no longer ‘if’ Nepal should engage, but ‘how’.
The answer lies not in traditional diplomacy alone, but in the aggressive commercialization of our geography. Hydropower must cease to be viewed merely as an export commodity – megawatts (MW) sold to India – and must instead be rebranded as the bedrock of a regional clean-energy architecture. This is the economic bridge Nepal must build to float its candidacy for a ‘BRICS Partner Country’ status.
The logic is geopolitical as much as it is economic. BRICS is increasingly focused on energy security, financial cooperation, local-currency settlement and diversification of cross-border payment mechanisms. By pitching a ‘Regional Clean-Energy Platform,’ Nepal positions itself as the green battery for a bloc that includes the world's largest energy consumers (China and India) and ambitious new players looking for sustainable investment avenues.
Nepal’s proposition to BRICS should be audacious yet pragmatic: a trilateral clean-energy corridor linking Nepal's generation capacity with Indian and Bangladeshi markets that utilizes Nepal’s hydropower to stabilize the region's renewable transition. Nepal possesses the technical potential to generate over 40,000 MW. By framing this potential as a solution to the region's carbon deficits and energy intermittency, Nepal moves from being a landlocked nation to a ‘land-linked’ energy hub.
This platform could serve as the prerequisite for BRICS engagement. It signals to major powers like Moscow and Beijing, and even New Delhi, that Kathmandu is bringing tangible assets to the table, not just a strategic location. It transforms hydropower into a diplomatic instrument, a currency that can help Nepal receive a seat at the high table of the Global South.
Formal membership in BRICS brings with it the weight of geopolitical signaling that might currently be too heavy for Kathmandu's delicate balancing act. However, the newly created ‘Partner Country’ category – created in October 2024 Kazan summit – offers the perfect stratagem. Partner country status would give Nepal a formal platform for participation in BRICS consultations, while creating a diplomatic pathway to seek closer engagement with the New Development Bank (NDB) and other BRICS institutions. NDB financing, however, would require separate eligibility and institutional approval.
For Nepal, the pathway to this status must be paved with the hydro-power diplomacy mentioned above. Nepal must argue that the Himalayas are not just a border, but a shared ecological and economic resource that requires a transnational management framework. A BRICS Partner Country status provides the institutional backing to manage this resource without the conditionalities often imposed by Western financial institutions.
Thus, Nepal should not approach BRICS merely as a country seeking a membership but as a Partner Country offering a regional solution like ‘Himalayan Resilience Corridor Initiative (HRCI)’ and ‘Himalayan Climate, Glacier and Disaster Resilience Centre (HCGDRC)’. The first one could be a physical infrastructure and economic corridor, whereas HCGDRC could act as knowledge, monitoring and early-warning institution.
When Nepal becomes a Partner Country, it could formally propose the ‘Himalayan Resilience Corridor Initiative (HRCI)’ and ‘Himalayan Climate, Glacier and Disaster Resilience Centre (HCGDRC)’, which would be the crown jewel of the Nepal-BRICS framework, moving beyond simple energy trade to a comprehensive climate-security paradigm.
Though, BRICS already has energy, climate, infrastructure and disaster-risk agendas, Nepal could connect these existing BRICS priorities through HRCI, which could be envisioned as a multi-modal corridor integrating three critical pillars; Energy Grid Interconnectivity, Climate Adaptation Infrastructure and Green Hydrogen and Ecological Logistics.
Energy Grid Interconnectivity could be a high-voltage transmission backbone linking Nepal’s generation hubs with the load centers in India and Bangladesh – though Bangladesh is not yet the member of BRICS but aspires to become one and a member of BRICS-backed NDB – potentially extending northwards, financed by BRICS capital. Similarly, Climate Adaptation Infrastructure could utilize BRICS technology and funding to combat glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and basin management. It will frame the Himalayas as a ‘Resilience’ asset, appealing to the climate-vulnerable nations within the BRICS sphere.
Likewise, Green Hydrogen and Ecological Logistics could help develop green hydrogen industries powered by seasonal hydro-surplus and establishing eco-friendly logistics routes that complement the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and India’s Act East policy, effectively turning Nepal into a transit lubricant for the region.
To make this a reality, the policymakers in Singha Durbar must pivot from reactive aid-rationing to proactive economic statecraft. The HRCI should be pitched not as a Nepali project, but as a BRICS project ‘hosted’ in Nepal. It serves the interests of China by securing its southern ecological flank and benefits India by providing renewable energy and disaster mitigation.
Furthermore, the HRCI offers an alternative narrative to the ‘debt trap,’ discourse. By structuring this under the BRICS framework – specifically aiming for NDB financing – Nepal can diversify its portfolio, ensuring that its infrastructure development is backed by a coalition of emerging economies rather than a single bilateral lender.
The waters of the Himalayas have flowed for millennia, sustaining civilizations below. It is time Nepal stopped viewing these rivers solely as resources to be tapped, but as currency to be traded on the geopolitical market. By floating the idea of a ‘Clean-Energy Platform’ and subsequently formalizing the ‘Himalayan Resilience Corridor Initiative’, Nepal can do more than just join BRICS; it can define its own relevance in a new world order.
Likewise, a BRICS-supported ‘Himalayan Climate, Glacier and Disaster Resilience Centre (HCGDRC)’ bringing the institutions together from Nepal, India, China, Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, and other BRICS partners could work in various areas including glacier monitoring, glacial lake monitoring, landslide monitoring, flood forecasting, seismic monitoring, satellite observation, AI-based disaster prediction, early warning systems, hydrological modelling and emergency communication. The objective of the Centre would be to move from post-disaster response to predictive resilience, which is also one of the key lessons from August 26 Bhotekoshi-Trishuli flash flood. Such a proposal would build on BRICS's existing work on climate change, disaster-risk reduction, energy cooperation and early-warning systems.
The bridge is ready to be built. The materials are our geography and our ambition. All that remains is the political will to lay the foundation.

(First published in nepalkhabar.com -- https://en.nepalkhabar.com/news/detail/19786/)

NEA to set up 10 electric vehicle charging stations in Valley

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) - that has one charging station inside its head office premises at Ratnapark in kathmandu - is setting up 10 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across Kathmandu Valley within the next six months as the demand for charging stations has increased due to increasing number of electric vehicles in the country in recent years.
The power utility – publishing a notice – said that it is seeking land space for lease for the establishment of such vehicle charging stations to promote government’s plan to prioritise electric vehicles. NEA has asked government agencies, business complexes, supermarkets, hotels and hospitals to submit applications.
According to the NEA, it aims to set up electric vehicle charging stations especially in areas where vehicular movement is relatively high. "The NEA will give priority to leasers especially from areas with high vehicular movement,” the notice reads. "The government power utility plans to publish a tender notice for the procurement of necessary machinery and equipment to set up charging stations soon."
The authority has also estimated the construction cost of the 10 electric vehicle charging stations to stand at around Rs 100 million.
NEA also plans to set up charging stations – in the second phase – across different places in Pokhara, Nepalgunj, Chitwan and Biratnagar, after Kathmandu Valley.
The government has prioritised electric vehicles due to growing concern regarding pollution issues, due to low cost factor because of reduced import duty, and also huge imports of fossile fuel that comes to around Rs 200 billion – almost one fourth of the total budget. NEA estimates that there are almost 600 electric vehicles plying on the Valley’s roads. But due to lack of charging stations, electric vehicles owners are forced to charge their vehicles at home.
The government – in its policies and programmes presented at the parliament on Friday – has announced about giving special treatment to electric vehicles and setting up charging stations across the country.
The government has – in its budget for the current fiscal year – reduced import duty on electric vehicles (public vehicles) to one per cent from 30 per cent. Similarly, import duty on private electric vehicles had been slashed to 10 per cent from 30 per cent, apart from excise duty exemption on electric vehicles.
But due to lack of necessary infrastructure like charging stations and route permit from the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), the electric vehicles have yet not got as much attention as it should have.