India, Nepal to hold high-level meeting today amid border row

New Delhi: India and Nepal will hold talks on Monday under their “oversight mechanism” to review development projects funded by New Delhi in the Himalayan nation. This will be the first high-level contact between the two sides since ties were hit by a border row.

The joint oversight mechanism was launched in 2016 and reviews progress in bilateral projects.

The meeting between Indian envoy Vinay Mohan Kwatra and Nepal’s foreign secretary Shanker Das Bairagi, who jointly chair the mechanism, is being seen by some quarters in Kathmandu as a positive development after the border row took relations to a new low.

“The mechanism will only focus on the implementation of India-funded projects in Nepal. However, it could help break the logjam in relations,” said a person aware of the developments.

During its seventh meeting in July last year, the mechanism reviewed the implementation of projects such cross-border rail links, petroleum pipelines, roads, bridges, integrated border check posts, energy, irrigation, and post-earthquake reconstruction.

The border row erupted late last year after Nepal objected to the inclusion of Kalapani region, which is claimed by Kathmandu, in a new map of the union territory of Ladakh that was issued by India. The row was exacerbated in May, when India opened a new road to Lipulekh region on the border with Tibet, as this area too is claimed by Nepal.

In June, Nepal’s Parliament approved the new political map of the country that showed Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, which are all controlled by India, as the part of the Himalayan nation.

India had termed as untenable the “artificial enlargement” of territorial claims by the neighbouring country. The foreign ministry further said that Nepal’s action violates an understanding reached between the two countries to resolve the boundary issues through talks.

In recent weeks, the two countries have also engaged in a war of words over the origins of historic figures such as Lord Ram and Gautam Buddha.