Kathmandu

Kathmandu is the capital city of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, situated in the Kathmandu Valley at roughly 1,400 metres elevation along the Bagmati River. It is the political seat designated under the Constitution of Nepal, 2015 (which came into force on 20 September 2015), housing the bicameral Federal Parliament, the President's office (Sheetal Niwas), Singha Durbar — the central secretariat — and the Supreme Court. Following Nepal's transition from a Hindu monarchy to a secular federal republic, formally abolishing the Shah dynasty by the Constituent Assembly declaration of 28 May 2008, Kathmandu became capital of Bagmati Province as well as the national capital. The Kathmandu Valley, encompassing the historic city-states of Kathmandu, Lalitpur (Patan) and Bhaktapur, has been a continuous centre of Newar civilisation and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

For exam purposes Kathmandu's diplomatic significance dominates: it is the permanent headquarters of the SAARC Secretariat, established under the SAARC Charter signed at Dhaka on 8 December 1985, with the Secretariat itself inaugurated in Kathmandu on 16 January 1987. SAARC comprises eight members — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Kathmandu has hosted multiple SAARC summits, most notably the 18th SAARC Summit in November 2014, which produced the Kathmandu Declaration and the SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity). The 19th summit, scheduled for Islamabad in November 2016, was indefinitely postponed after India and other members withdrew following the Uri attack, leaving SAARC effectively dormant through 2026.

Kathmandu also anchors Nepal's wider diplomatic and developmental footprint. It hosts the headquarters of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an intergovernmental knowledge centre serving the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, established in 1983. The city is central to Nepal's "balanced" or "equidistant" foreign policy between India and China, and the venue for India–Nepal and Nepal–China bilateral engagements, including discussions on the Belt and Road Initiative (which Nepal joined in 2017). The 25 April 2015 Gorkha earthquake (magnitude 7.8) devastated Kathmandu, killing nearly 9,000 nationally and damaging heritage sites including Dharahara tower and Durbar Square temples, triggering a major international relief operation.

For Bangladesh's BCS aspirants (Bangladesh in the World) and global-institutions papers, Kathmandu matters chiefly as the SAARC headquarters and as a node in South Asian regional cooperation — examiners frequently pair it with Dhaka (where the SAARC Charter was signed) and with BIMSTEC, headquartered in Dhaka, as the rival regional grouping gaining prominence amid SAARC's paralysis. Typical questions test the SAARC founding date and venue, the location of the Secretariat, the river on which Kathmandu sits, and Nepal's capital status. UPSC and FSOT geography/international-relations sections similarly test Kathmandu as a Himalayan capital and SAARC's seat. Candidates should distinguish the city of signature (Dhaka, 1985) from the city of the permanent Secretariat (Kathmandu, 1987).