Nepal awaits India’s response on disputed border region of Kalapani

With New Delhi getting a new foreign secretary, Kathmandu now hopes to resume the talks to resolve the disputed border region of Kalapani

New Delhi:  While calling upon India to resolve ‘all pending issues through dialogue’, Nepal has started to mount pressure on New Delhi to settle the border dispute in the Kalapani region, on the diplomatic fronts. 

The Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-led government has started knocking on the doors of India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) after diplomatic notes sent by Kathmandu received no response from New Delhi.

The tri-junction pocketed land of Kalapani, has acquired fresh talking points after New Delhi published a new map of India following the bifurcation of Kashmir into two Union territories on 5 August. The foreign secretaries of India and Nepal were to meet to discuss the Kalapani border issue in November, but to date there has been no formal exchange of notification.

According to sources in the Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali’s department, the first knock came on the doors of MEA last week, as Kathamandu congratulated India’s new foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. 

“The transition to a new foreign secretary was completed on Wednesday (27 January). Thus, we are hoping that the talks on this topic (Kalapani dispute) will now resume,” a senior Nepalese official told The News21 team.

He claimed that Kathmandu continues to wait for New Delhi’s response to two of its diplomatic notes, dating back to November and December 2019, to discuss the issue. Prime Minister Oli had registered his protest against India’s political map published in the first week of November, through a diplomatic note dated 22 November 2019.

In diplomatic communiqué, Kathmandu had also proposed a date for a meeting between the two nations to resolve the border difference. However, the meeting could not take place as MEA’s response to the note came on 19 December 2019, by when the proposed date was already past.

Following the delayed communication, Nepal reportedly sent a second diplomatic note. On this spokesperson for the Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bharat Raj Paudyal was quoted saying that the Indian authorities were yet to respond.

Nepal Preparing a New Map

While the respective foreign ministries continue the exchange of formal communications, a determined Nepalese government on the sidelines has started working on war-footing to mark its borders with both India and China.

According to official sources, Kathmandu’s Survey Department is preparing a new political map of Nepal, including the GIS tagging of the disputed region of Kalapani up to the northwestern area of Limpiyadhura. 

The move comes, after Nepal’s Minister for Land Management Padma Kumari Aryal’s recent statement, to House committee, of his department set to publish a corrected map of the country.

“We are preparing a new map as per the government’s instructions. Our officers (land survey) have been asked to GIS tag every region,” an official informed.  

PM Modi Invited for Nepal’s Biennial Dialogue

Meanwhile, PM Oli has extended an invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Nepal.

While government officers said that the invitation was to present a formal opportunity to review the achievements made in the relations between the two Himalayan neighbors, sources had a different story to tell.

As per reports, Nepal wants to invite PM Modi at its first-ever permanent biennial dialogue forum – Sagarmatha Sambaad. The forum has been scheduled to be held between 2 – 4 April, under the theme ‘Climate Change, Mountains and the Future of Humanity.’

“We plan to discuss, deliberate and decide upon an array of regional, national and strategic topics. The forum will host several heads of nations from South Asia,” an officer claimed.