New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet his counterpart in Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba, during a visit to the neighbouring country Monday. This will be their second meeting in a little over a month, and both sides will raise issues concerning the boundary and the decades-old Pancheshwar dam project during the meeting, ThePrint has learnt.
This will be Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to Nepal since both neighbours got embroiled in a major row over the unsettled boundary in the Kalapani region in 2020, which led the then KPS Oli government in Nepal to redraw the borders and issue a new political map claiming the disputed territories as its own.
India believes the boundary question can be dealt with once Nepal sees political stability, even as Kathmandu is headed for elections by the end of this year, sources told ThePrint.
While Prime Minister Deuba visited India last month in order to reset bilateral ties, which got adversely impacted under former PM Oli, Modi’s visit there Monday — albeit only for a few hours — is expected to boost the former’s political standing in the country.
During his visit to India on 2 April, PM Deuba, in a rare political gesture, paid a visit to the headquarters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), immediately after landing in New Delhi inviting scathing criticism back home.
According to sources, PM Deuba, who is facing numerous political challenges in his country, will not be in a position to take any “tough decisions” as far as India is concerned, sources said.
Meanwhile, the US has started making severe inroads in the Himalayan nation, ever since Deuba came to power there in July 2021. A senior US Congressional delegation visited Nepal last month, in an effort to expand bilateral ties which started to plummet under the previous communist regime there.
Prime Minister Modi will be reaching Lumbini, which is about 255 kilometers from Kathmandu, Monday, on the occasion of Buddha Purnima. This will be the Prime Minister’s fifth visit to Nepal since coming to power in 2014.
He will be meeting PM Deuba there and will leave for India by early evening the same day.
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‘Boundary question should not be made political’
According to Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, the boundary question between both sides should be discussed under the set mechanism, without giving rise to political controversy.
“In so far as the border discussions, boundary discussions between the two countries are concerned, there are established bilateral mechanisms that exist between the two countries,” Kwatra said at a press conference Friday.
The Foreign Secretary, who was India’s envoy to Nepal till April 2022, also said, “We have always maintained they are best way forward in discussing those issues, discussing in a responsible manner without politicisation of those issues.”
Nepal had also been urging India to adopt a report given by the Eminent Persons’ Group, that recommended a review of the bilateral ties in all aspects of the relationship.
According to Kwatra, the report has not yet been submitted to Prime Minister Modi.
“EPG report will be reviewed after it is submitted and it is yet to be submitted. The government will take into consideration once it is submitted,” said Kwatra.
According to the joint statement issued at the time, it had been decided between both countries during Modi’s first visit to Nepal after becoming PM in 2014, “look into the totality of Nepal-India relations from independent, non-governmental perspectives and suggest measures to further expand and consolidate the close and multifaceted relations between the two countries”.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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