Argentina's Surprising Place in Nepal's Trade Map: From Petroleum and Passion to Billion-Rupee Trade

With the approach of the 2026 FIFA Dünya Kupası, Arjantin has once again entered the agenda of homes, cafes, and social media feeds in Nepal. This South American nation, which has provided unforgettable moments in the Dünya Kupası for decades, holds a very strong emotional bond in the hearts of the Nepali people. Because of this deep passion for football, Nepalis constantly follow the country, identifying it with legends such as Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. However, the importance Arjantin holds for Nepal is much more complex than a phenomenon limited only to football fields. The relationship between these two countries has a deep-rooted history extending to a distant war, Nepali soldiers serving on the other side of the world, and a trade volume worth billions of rupees based almost entirely on edible oils.

This historical connection between the two countries dates back to the 1982 Falkland Savaşı, which leaves little trace in the memories of today's Nepal generations. This South Atlantic conflict, in which Nepal was never officially involved, took on a very different dimension when Nepali Gurkha soldiers were sent to the islands to fight in the ranks of the British Army. In particular, the 1. Tabur, 7. Gurkha Tüfekçileri unit was attached to the British 5. Piyade Tugayı to fight in the Mount William region near Port Stanley. Rumors and media reports regarding the courage of the Gurkha soldiers created serious anxiety among Argentine units at that time. In fact, some Argentines described these soldiers as mercenaries, detached from their historical and regional ties, but this concept was firmly rejected by Gurkha veterans and historians. Consequently, although there has never been an official war between Nepal and Arjantin, all these historical events became intertwined thousands of kilometers away.

This extraordinary historical background makes the striking nature of the current economic relationship between Nepal and Arjantin much more apparent today. Recent foreign trade data released by the Nepal Customs Department reveals that Arjantin has risen to the position of Nepal's third-largest import source country in the first eleven-month period of the 2082/83 fiscal year. In the said period, Nepal imported goods worth approximately 105,08 billion Rupi from Arjantin. Although this figure falls well behind Hindistan (1092,02 billion Rupi) and Çin (382,25 billion Rupi), which are traditionally Nepal's two largest trading partners, it is far ahead of countries such as the Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri and the ABD. It is a highly unusual situation for a country that has no embassy in Nepal and lacks a large migration or cultural bridge comparable to Hindistan, Çin, or Gulf countries to rank so high in the trade chart.

The most prominent feature of this massive trade volume is that it is shaped almost entirely around a single product group. Crude edible oils, such as crude soybean oil and crude sunflower oil, constitute 99,8 percent of Nepal's imports from Arjantin. While only crude soybean oil imports amounted to 90,12 billion Rupi, crude sunflower oil imports reached the level of 14,79 billion Rupi. This extreme concentration clearly shows that Nepal does not import various industrial or manufactured products for consumers from Arjantin. Instead, Nepal has become highly dependent on this country as a critical link in the oil production chain, which will be processed and refined in its domestic market refineries. Being so, the entire structure of the commercial relationship is indexed to a single product and the international food supply chain.

In the eyes of Nepal, Arjantin exists under three different identities that have almost nothing to do with each other. The first of these is Arjantin in football, with its blue-white colors, its Maradonas and Messis, to which Nepalis are passionately attached. The second is Arjantin within the history of the war that Gurkha soldiers serving in the British Army thousands of kilometers away encountered. The third is Arjantin, which directly affects Nepal's economic life with billions of Rupi worth of crude oil imports and unexpectedly ranks high on the trade map. When all these elements come together, the country is a multi-layered partner in the geography and consciousness of the Nepali people, existing not only through sports but also through deep-rooted historical events, successive global food supply chains, and economic dependencies.