S O U T H A S I A B

In the meantime, the Taliban participated in the third UN-led Doha meeting on Afghanistan for the first time. [...] On the other hand, China attended the UN-led conference on Afghanistan in the presence of the Taliban government. [...] With the changes in the ruling party coalition (CPN-Maoist and Nepali Congress) at the federal level in March [see SAB 2(8)], the cabinet of the provincial governments is undergoing a shuffle, too. [...] The visit to Germany by Nepal’s Head of State was the first since 1986, and the visit to Switzerland was the first since 1997. [...] The key objectives for the upcoming fiscal year included bringing the pubic debt-to-GDP ratio to sustainable levels, prioritizing improvements in the balance of payments position, and strengthening the case for a new bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).