India forces Nepal to drop ‘boundary issue’ from talks

Through its aggressive diplomacy, India has derailed Nepal’s plan to push ‘boundary issue’ in the agenda which has been set for the talks to be held next week between both the nations. As India and Nepal decided to hold a talk probably on 17 August, Nepalese diplomats tried to include border issues as one of the agendas of the parley, which the Indian side was unwilling to discuss now.

Sources say it could be the Chinese ploy to prod Nepal to bring up contentious issues to bring the ties between both the neighbouring countries to a new low so that it could further its agenda to increase its influence in Kathmandu.

Therefore, India did not agree to Nepal’s repeated calls for a dialogue on the boundary issue including the recent dispute over Himalayan nation’s new political map.

India has set the agenda asking Nepal to keep focus on “reviewing progress in development and economic projects”. India argued that the meeting is being held under the mechanism set by both the countries which deals only with India-funded projects and their review. Why should there be any other issue side by side?

 In the meeting, India will remind Nepal of its cooperation with it at the time of crises including the one resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. India has supplied Covid-related medical aid to Kathmandu including 10 ventilators this week only. The meeting through video conferencing will be held between Indian Ambassador in Kathmandu, V.M. Kwatra and Nepal’s foreign secretary S.D. Bairagi. Other officials of Indian embassy and Nepalese foreign ministry will also be joining the meeting.

“The meeting will be riveted to economic and development projects, and ways to expedite the implementation of pending projects,” said a diplomat. In what is being seen as a result of diplomatic efforts by India, Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali said, “There is no alternative to talks, as we can’t hold our entire ties hostage to the differences over the boundary issues.”  

“The meeting will focus only on the agenda India has set and nothing except that (read contentious issues) would be there,” an official added. However, India considers it to be an important meeting as it was long due and it is now going to be held in the backdrop of China expediting its efforts to increase its clout in the regions surrounding India.

Chinese growing ambition to this effect is already visible in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

China has always been trying to hijack the projects which Nepal wanted to hand over to India. With this in view, India is going to showcase the projects that it has implemented fast in Nepal so far and the also ones which are on the anvil. Diplomats will try and impress upon the Nepalese side how India could be of more use to them instead of other countries. After earthquake ravaged Nepal, it was India which helped it reconstruct and renovate all that was ruined by the catastrophe. India will apprise Nepal that New Delhi has allocated Rs 800 crore in this year’s budget for projects there.

 It may be recalled that India’s inauguration of a new road from Dharchula to Lipulekh on the Mansarovar Yatra route had angered the K.P. Sharma Oli government, which came out with a new map of Nepal. The area of 370 sq km at the tri-junction of Nepal, India and China (Tibet), which India maintains is its territory, was added to it. That is not all. The Nepali parliament passed a constitution amendment bill to legitimise the alteration or addition of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura to the map. “But India’s projects in Nepal are the only agenda that would come up in the meeting as it is being held under the mechanism set up to review the projects only,” asserted an official.