Nepal: International Airport Will not get Closed by Maoists

Just few minutes ago, I wrote an entry about Nepal being one of the top ten travel destinations of 2010 according to a list of Lonely Planet. Well, there is no doubt that it is a great country for tourism and tourism is one of the major foreign exchange earners for the country. However, for tourism, it needs good infrastructure and also political stability. Unfortunately, it seems to me that again the country may suffer from instability as there is some in fighting among various political parties. The Maoist party leaders planned to block the only international air port in the capital Kathmandu. Fortunately the western diplomats put a lot of pressure on them and thus the Maoists were forced to abandon their plan.

A few months ago, there was a political tension, in which the Maoist Prime Minister was forced to resign and a new government took power. Since then the Maoist leaders have been arranging a number of protests and the latest move was to close the international air port. However, diplomats from Europe, USA and Russia met with the Maoist chief Mr. Prachanda and convinced him to quit planned action. If the air port was really closed then the tourism sector would have suffered a severe blow.

I wish that the political parties can find some solution to the current crisis because Nepal needs political stability at this moment in order to get some kind of economic prosperity.

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Reuters