International and regional organisations and Nepal's membership

Quick reference

Membership figures are as of 2026 and can change; the dates do not.

United Nations

The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and came into force on 24 October 1945, observed as UN Day. There were 51 original members. The Charter creates six principal organs:

1. General Assembly: all members, one vote each.
2. Security Council: 15 members, of which 5 are permanent (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States) and 10 are elected for two-year terms.
3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): 54 members.
4. Trusteeship Council: suspended its work in 1994.
5. International Court of Justice: 15 judges, seated at The Hague.
6. Secretariat: headed by the Secretary-General.

Bodies such as UNESCO, WHO, UNICEF, UNDP and the Human Rights Council are specialised agencies, programmes or subsidiary bodies, not principal organs.

IMF and the World Bank Group

Both were conceived at the Bretton Woods conference of July 1944. The IMF promotes monetary cooperation and exchange stability and lends to members with balance-of-payments problems. Liechtenstein became its 191st member in October 2024.

The World Bank Group has five institutions:

"World Bank" strictly means IBRD and IDA together.

ADB, AIIB and WTO

• ADB was established in 1966 with its headquarters in Manila. Nepal is a founding member.
• AIIB is headquartered in Beijing. Its Articles of Agreement entered into force on 25 December 2015 and it began operations in January 2016. Nepal is a founding member.
• WTO began on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, succeeding the GATT of 1947. Nepal's accession was approved at the Cancun Ministerial Conference in 2003 and it became the 147th member on 23 April 2004.

SAARC and BIMSTEC

SAARC was created when its Charter was signed in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. The seven founders were Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan joined as the eighth member at the 14th Summit in New Delhi in 2007. The Secretariat has been in Kathmandu since 1987.

BIMSTEC began with the Bangkok Declaration of 6 June 1997, signed by Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Myanmar joined in December 1997, and Nepal and Bhutan were admitted in 2004, giving seven members: five from South Asia and two from South-East Asia. Its Secretariat was set up in Dhaka in 2014.

Exam pointers

• Nepal: UN 1955, IMF and World Bank 1961, ADB 1966 (founder), WTO 2004, BIMSTEC 2004.
• Headquarters: UN New York, IMF and World Bank Washington, WTO Geneva, ADB Manila, AIIB Beijing.
• Secretariats: SAARC Kathmandu, BIMSTEC Dhaka.
• Six principal UN organs; the Trusteeship Council is inactive since 1994.
• IDA (1960) is the soft-loan arm of the World Bank Group.
• SAARC has 8 members, BIMSTEC has 7; Pakistan, Afghanistan and Maldives are not in BIMSTEC.