Nepal, Oct. 4 -- Nepal's geographical position has assumed renewed strategic salience amid intensifying competition between the United States and China. While this creates opportunities, it also exposes Nepal to external vulnerabilities.

Nepal's position between contending great powers demands a minimum credible deterrence posture that reinforces, rather than subverts, its non-aligned foreign policy. For an economically constrained state, however, minimum credible deterrence cannot stem from amassing conventional military build-up. It hinges upon resilient government institutions, effective governance, diplomatic capacity and robust inter-agency coordination. This requires foreign and security policies to serve as mutually supporting pil...