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NEPAL has rejected offers to send foreign rescue teams into the country following the deadly disaster along its border with China, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said today.
He said the Nepalese Government had decided to accept assistance from other countries, including Malaysia, in the form of supplies but would not allow foreign personnel to join rescue operations.
“The Nepalese Government has made its position clear that it will only accept assistance in the form of supplies, but not the deployment of personnel,” he said.
Khaled said Malaysia’s Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART), under the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), remained ready to be deployed should Nepal require its assistance.
He said Nepal’s decision was aimed at avoiding coordination difficulties that could arise if large numbers of foreign rescue teams entered the country.
However, he said the country had no objection to the delivery of essential supplies, including search-and-rescue equipment.
Malaysia had previously expressed its readiness to deploy SMART to Nepal to assist search-and-rescue operations following the disaster on Aug 26.
The disaster occurred after ice and rock avalanches from a glacial area in the Himalayan mountains triggered a massive mudflow that struck areas near the Nepal-China border, including Gyirong Port in Tibet.
Mohamed Khaled said this after attending the Executive Lecture with Public University PALAPES programme at Universiti Malaysia Perlis here today.
In a related development, Khaled is scheduled to visit the Fifth Battalion of the Border Regiment in Bukit Kayu Hitam to receive a briefing and meet personnel stationed there to safeguard the national border. - September 3, 2026
