Dr. Arvind Kumar*
The close linguistic, marital, religious and cultural ties at people-to-people level between India and Nepal have remain there since times immemorial. Even trade relations between India and Nepal have made rapid strides in recent years. In the fiscal year 2019-2020, Nepal accounted for 62% of the country’s trade, and during the first half of the fiscal year 2020-2021, Nepal purchased $ 5.1 worth of goods and services from India, while Nepal could export only $810 million worth of goods and services. Nepal is heavily dependent on India for petroleum products, food, luxury items, medicines, machinery, etc.
Since late 2015 political issues and Kalapani dispute have led to semi-strained relationsbetween the two countries with resentment growing amongst the government and people of Nepal. Apart from the vexing border issue, there are issues of equal importance in the realms of environment and water. Nepal’s vulnerability to the vagaries of climate change, especially climate-induced extreme weather events like floods, cloud bursts, and landslides fetches irreparable loss in terms of loss of human lives and livelihoods to the people of Nepal. Besides, spillover of floodwaters to India’s bordering state of Bihar also causes innumerable losses on the Indian side. Therefore, areas of cooperation should include, apart from politics, economics and trade, environment and water-related issues as well.
The recent three-day visit of the Nepalese Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba to India and his free and frank exchange of views with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Indian ministers and officials entails every likelihood of bringing the traditionally friendly relations between New Delhi and Kathmandu on an even keel which had gone sour in the wake of Nepal’s claims over some parts of the Indian territory in 2020.
This visit marked the highest level of diplomatic exchange between the two countries since the eruption ofa border row over the territorial jurisdiction in some areas lying northwest of Nepal in the vicinity of the India-Nepal-China tri-junction. Interestingly, the visit of the Nepalese PM to India had aroused curiosity among Nepal-India observers both in New Delhi and Kathmandu whether the two countries would take some concrete steps to resolve the boundary issue that has been a constant in bilateral relations.
While addressing the Joint Press Briefing, after the delegation-level talks in New Delhi, the visiting Nepalese PM Deuba said that he had raised the boundary issue with his Indian counterpart: “We discussed the boundary matter and I urged him [Modi] to resolve them through established mechanism”. PM Modi listening alongside the Nepalese Prime Minister, during a joint press briefing following the talks, refrained from commenting on the matter, and later Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters that the two leaders briefly discussed the topic.He further added: “There was a general understanding that both sides needed to address this responsibly through discussion and dialogue in the spirit of our jhmclose and friendly relations and that the politicisation of such issues needs to be avoided”.
The row over the Kalapani region between India and Nepal is decades old; nevertheless, it hogged the media limelight in November 2019 when India showed the said region within the Indian territory on its new map. The then government of Nepal led by prime minister KP Sharma Oli raised objections to the Indian move; however, no talks at the diplomatic level occur at that time. According to media reports, the Oli government, in the wake of India inaugurated a link road via Lipulekh to Kailash Mansarovar in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, published a new map of Nepal depicting the Kalapani region within the Nepalese territory in May 2020.
As per media reports, Nepalese diplomatic circles in New Delhi were expecting that the Deuba-Modi meeting would prove instrumental in directing the concerned competent authorities in New Delhi and Kathmandu to look into the outstanding issues and forward a way to resolve them, and the eventuality that not happening, a Nepali diplomat is reported to have opined that the Indian side appears to have realised the issue needs to be addressed sooner or later.According to some experts, both India and Nepal have mechanisms at the foreign secretary and technical levels, and there is also a separate Boundary Working Group (BWG) with the mandate to complete the boundary task along with Nepal and India except for Susta and Kalapani regions.
A tangible outcome of the Nepalese Prime Minister’s visit to India has been that both India and Nepal have come out with a Joint Vision Statement (JVS) on power sector cooperation whereby both sides have agreed to jointly develop power generation projects in Nepal, establish cross-border transmission lines; and bi-directional power trade with adequate access to electricity markets in both countries.
Both countries have also signed agreements about Nepal’s entry into the India-led International Solar Alliance; Indian technical assistance to Nepal’s railway sector, and cooperation in the petroleum sector. PM Deuba and PM Modi jointly inaugurated a 35-kilometer-long rail service linking Kurtha of Nepal and Jayanagar to Bihar in India. This project is a part of a 68.7-kilometer Jayanagar-Bijalpura-Bardibas cross-border rail link built under India’s line of credit. The occasion was also utilised to jointly launch India’s RuPay digital card for use in Nepal.
It augurs well for both Nepal and India to put aside ticklish questions that are detrimental to the friendly relations between the two countries and can be resolved peacefully at the bilateral level, and it is high time that both sides embark on measures that enhance cooperation. At a time when the global and regional geopolitical developments are assuming subtle complexions that threaten international peace and security, fostering close and friendly relations with immediate neighbours is the most viable option to keep such threatening forces at bay. Hopefully this recent visit of PM Deuba to India will be instrumental in repairing bilateral ties, opening up new vistas of mutual cooperation in multiple sectors including the energy and connectivity sectors. One can hope that issues about the environment and water should also be the part of agenda of deliberations at the high-level exchange of visits between the two countries shortly. A peaceful, stable, and prosperous Nepal is in India’s interest and vice versa.
*Editor, Focus Global Reporter
