Background: Nepal's capital, currency and the groupings that explain its diplomacy
Background
Nepal's reaching 185 diplomatic partners with the Micronesia communique, and its spell as chair of the least developed countries at the United Nations, both rest on a set of standing facts. Kathmandu is the capital, the Nepalese rupee the currency and Nepali the official language. Nepal is landlocked, with land borders on only two countries: India on the east, south and west, and China's Tibet region to the north. It joined the United Nations in 1955 and is a founder member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, whose permanent secretariat has sat in Kathmandu since 1987. Nepal is also a member of BIMSTEC, which brings together countries around the Bay of Bengal, and of the Non-Aligned Movement. Because it has no sea coast it belongs to the UN group of landlocked developing countries, and because of its income and vulnerability scores it remains in the least developed countries category. Those two labels are what give Nepal its voice on trade access and climate finance.
In plain words
SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation — The eight-member South Asian grouping founded in 1985, with its secretariat in Kathmandu.
BIMSTEC Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation — A grouping of seven countries around the Bay of Bengal, including Nepal and Bhutan.
LLDC Landlocked Developing Country — A UN category of developing countries with no sea coast, which face higher trade costs.