Foreign Embassies & Diplomatic Missions in Nepal: A Directory

Foreign states conduct relations with Nepal in two principal ways. A small group of countries keeps a resident diplomatic mission — an embassy, or in the case of the European Union a delegation — physically based in the Kathmandu Valley. A much larger group is accredited to Nepal on a non-resident basis, meaning the ambassador and embassy are located in another capital (overwhelmingly New Delhi, India) and are simultaneously accredited to Nepal.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Nepal and the compiled list maintained on Wikipedia, around 25 countries operate resident embassies in Nepal, while roughly 100 further countries are accredited as non-resident missions. Within MOFA, the Protocol Division is the office responsible for liaison with the diplomatic corps, accreditation of ambassadors, privileges and immunities, and maintenance of the official diplomatic list.

Most resident embassies are clustered in a few diplomatic neighbourhoods of Kathmandu — notably Lainchaur, Lazimpat, Panipokhari, Baluwatar, Maharajgunj and Hattisar — while a number of missions are located in the adjacent city of Lalitpur (Patan), which forms part of the same contiguous urban area. The list of resident embassies includes Nepal's neighbours and major partners as well as a range of Asian, European and Middle Eastern states.

Resident embassies commonly reported in Kathmandu include India, the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Russia, France, Germany, Finland, Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Israel, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, together with the Delegation of the European Union. Missions located in Lalitpur have included Egypt, Malaysia, Myanmar, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland. The precise roster changes over time as missions open or close, so the MOFA diplomatic list is the authoritative reference.

Because maintaining a full embassy is costly, the majority of the world's countries do not have a resident mission in Kathmandu. Instead they extend their existing embassy in another capital to cover Nepal through “concurrent” or “non-resident” accreditation. For Nepal, the dominant hub for this is New Delhi: a large number of ambassadors based in the Indian capital are also accredited to Nepal and travel to Kathmandu to present credentials and conduct business.

Major economies that have historically covered Nepal from New Delhi include Canada, Italy and the Netherlands, among many others spanning Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia. A few countries are accredited from other posts rather than New Delhi — for example, some have covered Nepal from Dhaka. Travellers from countries without a resident embassy in Nepal should therefore contact the relevant mission in New Delhi (or wherever that country is accredited from) for consular assistance.

Beyond bilateral embassies, Nepal hosts missions of international organisations. The Delegation of the European Union to Nepal is a full diplomatic mission representing the EU's political, economic, trade and development relations with the country, headed by an EU Ambassador. It operates from Lazimpat in Kathmandu.

The United Nations maintains a substantial presence coordinated through the office of the UN Resident Coordinator, alongside specialised agencies, funds and programmes active in Nepal such as UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, ILO and UN Women. These offices implement development, humanitarian and technical-cooperation work in partnership with the Government of Nepal, and several are based in Lalitpur.

A resident embassy typically contains a political/diplomatic section and a consular section. The consular section handles services for the host country's own nationals (passports, registration, emergency assistance) and, where applicable, issues visas to Nepali citizens and foreign residents wishing to travel to that country. Many missions now route visa applications through outsourced visa-application centres rather than handling them directly at the chancery.

Visitors should note two practical points. First, the embassy of your own country is the place to seek help with a lost passport or an emergency abroad; if your country has no resident mission in Nepal, that role falls to its embassy in New Delhi or another accrediting post. Second, foreign nationals do not generally need to visit any embassy to enter Nepal itself — most visitors obtain a Nepali tourist visa on arrival or online — so embassies in Kathmandu are mainly for consular help and onward-travel visas.

Nepal's modern diplomatic history begins with its relationship to British India. The Treaty of Sugauli, signed in 1815 and ratified in March 1816 at the close of the Anglo-Nepalese War, redefined Nepal's borders and provided that an accredited minister from each side would reside at the court of the other; Britain duly stationed a Resident in Kathmandu, making it the first foreign power to maintain formal relations with Nepal. The bilateral relationship was placed on a fully sovereign footing by the Nepal–Britain Treaty of Friendship signed in Kathmandu in December 1923.

After 1950, and especially following Nepal's admission to the United Nations in 1955, the number of countries establishing relations with Nepal grew rapidly. Today Nepal maintains diplomatic relations with most member states of the UN, the great majority on a non-resident basis, while sustaining resident embassies with its closest neighbours and principal development and security partners.