KATMANDU, Nepal -- Padma Bahadur Khatri, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States and a one-time army general, died Friday after a prolonged battle against cancer and heart problems, family sources said. He was 70.
During his long career, Khatri also served as Nepal's ambassador to the United Nations, where he twice held the post of president of the Security Council when Nepal was a member in the 1970s.
He was a member of Nepal's national assembly at the time of his death.
The soldier-turned-diplomat delivered Nepal's first application for U.N. membership in 1948. The kingdom became a member of the world body only in the 1960s.
Khatri served as chairman in 1962 of the Nepal-China Boundary Commission that successfully demarcated the Nepalese-Tibetian border.
He headed a special U.N. delegation that investigated a foreign attack on the former West African state of Guinea in 1970.
In addition to serving as foreign minister, Khatri at one time held the administrative post of defense and foreign secretary.
The much-decorated general was the recipient of Nepalese, British, French and West German medals.
He is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter.
