Kathmandu, May 22. The government, in April, sent diplomatic notes to both India and China protesting the reported use of the Lipulekh Pass for trade and pilgrimage by the two countries. India responded within hours.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that the Lipulekh route has been in use since 1954 and is not a new development. He rejected Nepal’s claim as neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence, while also keeping the door open for bilateral dialogue.
China, Nepal’s northern neighbor, once again maintained silence. With no response from Beijing, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been unable to take a clear position. Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal said Nepal remains in continuous dialogue with China.
“We are in constant contact and dialogue with our northern neighbor,” Khanal told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday. “They have shown interest in our priority issues. After the formation of a new government, they are particularly curious about our policy priorities. We remain in regular contact.”
Border disputes among Nepal, India, and China are not new. However, Nepal’s diplomatic efforts often receive limited response when such issues surface.
India and China had earlier agreed in 2015 to allow pilgrimage and trade through Lipulekh.
During the tenure of late Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Nepal had also sent similar diplomatic notes to both neighbors. At that time as well, China did not respond, according to Dinesh Bhattarai, who was then the Prime Minister’s foreign affairs advisor.
Nepal’s western boundary was defined by the 1816 Sugauli Treaty between Nepal and the British East India Company, which ended the Anglo-Nepalese war but led to significant territorial loss for Nepal.
Experts say ambiguity in the treaty’s Article 5, which ended Nepal’s claim west of the Kali (Mahakali) River but did not clearly define its source, remains the root cause of the dispute.
Maps issued by India’s Survey of India have shown conflicting representations of the river’s origin, sometimes renaming it or omitting it altogether.
These repeated inconsistencies and diplomatic ambiguities have kept the Kalapani region a long-standing and sensitive geopolitical issue between the two neighbors.
In 1961, during the Nepal–China border treaty, the tri-junction point involving India, Nepal, and China was not clearly defined at Nepal’s westernmost point. King Mahendra, while resolving northern border issues with China, reportedly kept the Kalapani and Lipulekh area open due to sensitivity with India.
People’s News Monitoring Service
Login to add a comment