India has made it clear that boundary disputes with Nepal will not figure during upcoming foreign minister-level talks between the two countries.
MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday said that the foreign minister-level Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) is not the appropriate forum to discuss the border issues. Nepalese foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali will hold bilateral discussions with his Indian counterpart as part of JCM during his two-day visit to New Delhi beginning Friday.
"Our position on the boundary issue is well known. Let me say that the JCM and boundary talks are separate mechanisms," said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava, responding to a query on whether the border issue would be discussed in the meeting.
Nepal’s foreign ministry, while announcing the visit on Tuesday, said in a statement that the joint commission will discuss the scope of bilateral relations, including the boundary issue, Covid-19 cooperation, infrastructure, connectivity, trade and transit.
India ruled out any substantive dialogue with Nepal on the Kalapani border dispute saying there was a separate mechanism to address the issue.
Nepal's foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali landed here for the 6th JCM meeting which will be hosted by his counterpart S Jaishankar. The meeting will take place in the middle of the current political instability in Kathmandu that has seen Parliament's lower house dissolved by PM K P Oli and the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) effectively split into 2 despite China's best efforts to keep the warring Communist leaders together.
Gyawali though is still expected to raise the border issue and call for efforts to resolve the dispute. Oli had said last week in National Assembly that discussions during Gyawali's visit to India will be centred on the issue of Nepal's new political map that his government published showing Uttarakhand's Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh in Nepal.
India has been keeping a wary eye on China’s efforts to broker an understanding between Oli and his main rival, Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, in order to keep the Nepal Communist Party united.
Oli, has sought to rebuild ties with India though in the past few months. India has responded too with a series of high-level meetings including a visit to Kathmandu by army chief M M Naravane and foreign secretary Harsh Shringla. Significantly, India also agreed to host Gyawali even while working hard to ensure that it isn't seen, unlike China, as a factor in what it has described as Nepal's internal affairs.
However, this didn't stop Oli's rival P K Dahal Prachanda from alleging, in another dramatic development on Wednesday, that the Nepal PM had acted at the behest of India in dissolving Parliament and also in seeking to split the party.
"Oli met Samanta Goel, the chief of RAW, the intelligence wing of India, for three hours at his official residence at Baluwatar, without the presence of any second person, which clearly shows Oli's motive," Dahal was quoted as saying. He also accused Oli of taking wrong advice from external forces. Interestingly, Oli had himself accused his party leaders last year of acting on India's advice by seeking his resignation.
