Kathmandu, July 28 -- Described by its founding king 260 years ago as a "yam between two boulders" pressed on both sides by the Chinese Empire and British India, the metaphor has metamorphosed in the new geopolitical reality that Nepal faces.

The gradual withdrawal of a distracted West, the rise of India and China, and emerging power of the Gulf states is also changing Nepal's foreign policy outlook, and forcing it to reimagine its place in a multilateral world.

After Donald Trump became president for the second time this year, geopolitics is going through a tectonic shift. Washington's relations with New Delhi have recently become strained after Trump took credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May, and Trump dining wit...