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Nepal has protested against the construction of Indian roads on the border. Kathmandu claims that India has occupied its territory. However, New Delhi has denied the allegations.
According to Indian online news magazine The Wire, there were also strong protests in Nepal against the political map published by New Delhi after the annexation of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union in August last year.
According to The Wire, Nepal’s border dispute with India has now become a total dispute following the inauguration of a highway in the state of Uttarakhand. The path passes over the reclaimed territory of Kathmandu. The road is near the Chinese border.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh paved the way between Dharchula and Lipulekh via video conference on Friday. This path allows Indian pilgrims to travel to Mansarovar in Tibet, an autonomous region of China. This will take less than a few days. Nepalese opposition leaders immediately erupted in protest and asked the government to clarify their position. A day later, the Nepalese Foreign Minister expressed regret at India’s unilateral action and called on India to refrain from any activity on Nepalese soil.
In a long statement, the Nepalese Foreign Ministry reminded India that all the territories east of the Mahakali River belong to Nepal under the Sugaoli Treaty of 1817. These include Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh.
Regarding India’s latest initiative, Nepal said the unilateral action taken by India would be resolved through negotiations on the border issue, contrary to the agreement reached between the two countries at the level of the prime minister. Noting that Nepal was seeking a diplomatic solution in the spirit of friendly relations, the Foreign Ministry said that, in the context of this progress, Nepal urged the Government of India not to take any action within Nepalese territory.
According to a report published in the Kathmandu Post, Nepal’s foreign secretary, Shankar Das Bairagi, spoke to the Indian ambassador, Binoy Kawatra, on Friday.
The statement added that Nepal had twice offered to hold a meeting between the two countries’ foreign affairs secretaries after the Kalapani controversy erupted last year, but India did not respond. Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Giwali told a group of visiting Indian journalists in February that India could work with Nepal if it could solve long-standing and complex border problems with Bangladesh.
A statement by the Indian Foreign Ministry on Friday night claimed that part of the road was entirely on Indian soil. When asked about the meeting between the two foreign ministers, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said the meeting could take place after the two sides end the date after successfully addressing the challenge of the existing Covid-19 emergency. Source: South Asia Monitor
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