By Shanker Man Singh
Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is scheduled to visit Nepal on January 4-5, 2024 to discuss issues of “mutual interest” with Nepal’s political leaders. S Jaishankar will be the first Indian minister to visit Nepal after one year of PM Pushpakamal Dahal in the government. The visit is expected to provide an opportunity to discuss matters of mutual interest with the political leaders of Nepal and to promote the centuries-old special friendship between Nepal and India.
The main purpose of Jaishankar’s visit is the seventh meeting of the Joint Commission, which is a high-level bilateral mechanism between Nepal and India. Some time ago, at the BIMSTEC foreign ministers’ retreat in Bangkok, Nepal’s Foreign Minister NP Saud invited his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar to participate in the meeting as it was Nepal’s turn to host it.
The Joint Commission is the highest body that reviews and makes decisions on all aspects of bilateral relations between the two countries, as well as prepares a new blueprint. The meeting will review the overall aspects of Nepal-India relations and the agreements and understandings reached between Nepal and India during the Prime Minister’s recent visit to India.
Just to recapitulate, PM Dahal was on an official visit to India from 31 to 20 Baisakh. The last meeting of the Joint Commission was held in New Delhi on January 15, 2021 after a border dispute arose between Kathmandu and New Delhi following the then KP Oli government publishing a new political map of Nepal including Kalapani and Lipu areas.
In the upcoming meeting, it is expected that the agreement reached between the two parties will be monitored on issues such as cross-border infrastructure and connectivity, strengthening of development partnership, and speedy implementation of ongoing major works.
There will be a review of the initiative of the Nepal-India projects, the construction of integrated check posts, railways, power transmission lines and upgrading of roads and motorable bridges established in Nepal with Indian assistance. In the meeting, there will be discussions on issues such as Dodhara-Chandni and new integrated check posts/international container depots, cross-border railways, roads and transmission lines, trade facilitation and speeding up the implementation of proposed bilateral projects.
People living in border areas face inundation problems especially due to embankment, inter-linking of canals and inadequate drainage systems. The visit is expected to broaden the base of mutual friendship, understanding and trust between the respective countries.
The visit also aims to broaden contacts, develop goodwill and establish new areas of cooperation. In recent years, the Indian leadership has been willing to address Nepal’s call for reciprocity in high-level visits.
It is often and repeatedly said from the Indian side that Nepal depends on what kind of relationship Nepal wants to develop and maintain with India. It is said that India is always open and ready to help in any field of mutual interest. This type of saying is very common to hear from the Indian side.
Our leadership should strive to win the goodwill of India’s leaders to address the challenges facing Nepal in the areas of commodity export growth, infrastructure development and addressing marketing barriers in bilateral, regional and global trade.
During PM Dahal’s India visit last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he and Dahal had made a very important decision to make the partnership between the two countries a ‘super hit’ in the future. During his visit to Nepal about nine years ago, he took “HIT” as highways, information technology and transmission lines. On that occasion, the Indian PM said that there has been a lot of progress between Nepal and India in the last nine years, and he said that many works have been done, including the start of railways and petroleum pipelines.
Stating that it is an important decision to make their partnership a “super hit” in the future, he informed that there is an agreement to train Nepali employees in the Indian Railways through a new railway contract. On that occasion, as a result of PM Dahal’s visit, seven agreements were signed in the fields of transport, connectivity, capacity building and culture.
The agreements were the inauguration of the Cargo Train Service from Bathnaha to Biratnagar Customs Yard in India, the Foundation Laying of Sunauli Bhairahawa Integrated Check Post, the inauguration of Nepalgunj Rupaidia Integrated Check Post, foundation laying of petroleum pipeline from Amlekhganj to Lothar in Chitwan, agreement for construction of Siliguri-Jhapa Petroleum Pipeline, agreement for construction of Dodhara Chandni Integrated Check Post, agreement on agreement and cross-border payment in Fukot Karnali hydropower project. Now there will be an evaluation of its progress, review and comprehensive action plan for future course of action. It is believed and expected that the “cross border payment” agreement will help students and tourists a lot.
Likewise, it is believed that the goal of exporting 10,000 megawatts of electricity in the next 10 years and India’s cooperation in projects such as Fukot Karnali Hydropower will open a new dimension.
Extending the Amlekhganj pipeline to Chitwan and building a new pipeline in Jhapa Siliguri is also a good thing from the point of view of cost reduction. The matter of speeding up the project related to the Ramayana circuit is not new but the pace of its implementation is slow.
Nepal asked for an air route from Mahendranagar. However, it seems that there is no concrete agreement on this. In this, Nepal should re-demand from the diplomatic level with cleverness. Similarly, Nepal demanded India to finalize the Pancheshwar project.
It is welcome that the officials of both countries have been instructed to prepare DPR for the Pancheshwar project in three months, but the implementation is yet to be seen, it is expected to be reviewed.
It was mentioned that the modality of the project will be decided within a year. Neighboring India aims to import 10,000 megawatts of electricity from Nepal in the next 10 years. An MoU was signed for the construction of Phukot Karnali and Lower Arun, while the Gorakhpur-Bhairawa 400 KV transmission line was launched.
An agreement was signed to build the Lower Arun Hydroelectric Project by the Indian company Sutlej Hydropower Corporation. In the agreement, Nepal will get 21 percent free electricity from this project. It was mentioned that the rest of the electricity will be delivered to the Indian market by Sutlej by paying royalties to the Government of Nepal. There will be a detailed discussion about it.
Everyone knows that Nepal and India have been close and neighborly friends since time immemorial. Nepal and India, though vastly different in size and population, economy and technology, are united by their culture, tradition and philosophy. Nepal-India relations should be looked at from a changed perspective: How to promote traditional relations? How to strengthen bilateral economic relations and how to develop business transactions on an equal footing. India has always been our major trading partner.
Therefore, to make any trade policy successful, the Indian market and the mutual interests of both countries must be kept in mind. Nepal’s politics with India or India’s economic diplomacy with Nepal should be seen in the context where both countries win and neither country loses.
Maintaining friendly relations with Nepal is important for India not only for its “Act East and Neighborhood First” policy but also for the peace and stability of the Northeast region.
The country has been a key partner of India in various regional and sub-regional initiatives such as SAARC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) sub-regional initiative.
It has become necessary to strengthen the relationship with Nepal in the context of the geo-economics that is changing in the world scenario, which is taking the moves of globalization and protectionism as the center point.
It will be important to develop strong partnerships in the region to counter its impact. Nepal, with its growing economic success, provides an important partnership in this region
PM’s recent visit highlighted the desire of the two governments to take the relationship forward and helped sustain the momentum. Experience has shown that efforts should be made to address people’s perceptions. In the meeting between the PMs of Nepal and India, there was no discussion about the Nepal-India Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report and there was an indication that there was something about the border.
People’s opinion has always been that India should give more support and goodwill to the country as it is a big neighbor in the areas of airways, EPG report, immediate airway, and waiting for further assistance.
During the visit of Jaishankar, it can be estimated that some agreements will be signed in addition to studying the obstacles faced by projects in Nepal. Also, India’s proposal to increase the budget of every small development project in Nepal from the current Rs 5 crore to Rs 24 crore will be on the table. The finance ministry is understood to have accepted the Indian proposal and agreed to increase the limit.
At a cursory glance, the joint commission was established in February 1991 during the visit of the then Indian Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar to Nepal. For the preparation of the meeting, it is appropriate for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal to talk to other relevant ministries and discuss concrete proposals and strategies.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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