Nepal and India held a foreign secretary level meeting on Monday where they discussed a range of issues of mutual interests. But they avoided broaching contentious issues related to boundary and border, submission of the final report of the Eminent Persons’ Group on Nepal-India relations, and resolution of the standoff over the Agnipath scheme on recruitment of Nepalis in the Indian Army.

The meeting took place as soon as Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra arrived in Kathmandu on Monday morning at the invitation of his counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal. After completing the foreign office consultations, Kwatra called on President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal, President of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli.

Before wrapping up his Nepal visit, he will meet more political leaders on Tuesday. “Matters of Nepal-India cooperation in the areas of energy, trade, connectivity, agriculture, education, culture were discussed during the meeting,” Prime Minister’s Office tweeted after the meeting between Prime Minister Dahal and Kwatra.

Sources told the Post that Kwatra discussed the possibility of Prime Minister Dahal visiting India.

Given the intense political discussions over Nepal’s upcoming presidential elections, Kwatra did not extend a formal invitation to Dahal but only inquired about possible dates for his India visit, an aide to prime minister Dahal told the Post.

It is still unsure whether the prime minister will visit India ahead of the elections for the President and Vice-president on March 9 and 17 respectively.

During the meeting led by Paudyal and Kwatra from the respective sides, they touched upon issues related of mutual interest and reviewed various aspects of Nepal-India relations covering connectivity, trade and transit, power sector cooperation, agriculture, education, culture, health and people-to-people relations, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But the statement issued by the foreign ministry and briefings by Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal made no mention of some contentious issues that have been irritants in bilateral ties for some time.

“We did not enter into contentious issues in these meetings,” Foreign Minister Paudyal told the Post. “We mostly focused on development and economic cooperation, and issues of mutual interest.”

“Our approach is to have continued dialogue with India on various issues. Let’s activate the mechanisms that deal with impending issues between us. That was what the two foreign secretaries discussed. Let’s end the situation of not having talks. This time, the two foreign secretaries discussed bilateral and multilateral issues,” said Minister Paudyal.

The boundary and border related issues have been irritants in bilateral ties after the then KP Oli government in May 2020, issued the new political map of the country incorporating Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh, areas which India currently occupies. The Nepali side has in the past been seeking to settle the boundary row with India at political and diplomatic level but the two sides are yet to find common ground to sit for such talks.

The two foreign secretaries, even as they sidestepped the most contentious boundary-related issues, did discuss the boundary. A statement issued by the foreign ministry said, “they exchanged views on completing the boundary works in the remaining segments through the established bilateral mechanisms.”

The Nepali side has requested resumption of the meeting of the Boundary Working Group (BWG) that is mandated to carry out works in the fields of construction, restoration and repair of boundary pillars including clearance of ‘no-man’s land’ and other technical tasks across Nepal-India border.

The last meeting of the BWG, the mechanism led by the Director General of Department of Survey of Nepal and Surveyor General of India, was held in August 2019 in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), India.

Similarly, in order to review and revisit the Nepal-India ties in the changed global and regional contexts, the two sides had formed the Eminent Persons Group and prepared a joint report in July 2018. But New Delhi has reservations over some points of EPG recommendations and so the report has been gathering dust for nearly five years.

Likewise, New Delhi is waiting for Kathmandu’s call on whether it will allow Nepali youths to be recruited in the Indian Army under the Agnipath scheme.

After the recruitment under Agnipath was dragged into a controversy in Nepal by some sections saying that the new Indian Army recruitment plan violates the 1947-tripartite agreement, former government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba had communicated to New Delhi that a post-election government in Nepal would take necessary decisions in this respect.

But the government under the Pushpa Kamal Dahal too has been sitting on the proposal and has not said anything on allowing Nepali youths to get enrolled in the Agnipath scheme. As per the scheme, of the total intake of recruits, 75 percent will be retired after serving for four years while the remaining 25 percent will complete full service and be entitled to pension and other benefits, which has been a major attraction for Nepali youths wanting to join the Indian Army since 1947.

“Those political and contentions issues will be discussed at the political level,” said Paudyal, adding that she and Kwatra discussed cooperation between Nepal and India on various multilateral forums. India seeks Nepal’s support in multilateral forums including in its bid of securing non-permanent membership of theUN Security Council for 2018-29 term. Similarly, Nepal wants Indian support for its candidacies including on WHO Asia Pacific membership . “We agreed to support each other’s candidacies and other initiatives on multilateral forums based on reciprocity,” said Minister Paudyal. Another topic that was discussed at the meeting between Paudyal and Kawtra was reactivating the stalled SAARC process that has now been stuck for almost seven years.

According to a statement issued by Paudyal’s private secretariat, she also discussed the issue of new air routes for Nepal for the successful operation of the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa and the Pokhara Regional Airport. Nepal has for long been seeking additional air routes with India in order to bring its second international airport in Bhairahawa under operation.

Other issues of discussion included increasing Indian development assistance, bringing more Indian investment into Nepal, creating a favourable environment for investment, connectivity, and resolving the problems in bilateral trade and energy trade. Minister Paudyal also proposed a common voice of South Asian nations on issues of climate change in international forums, the secretariat added.

The two sides reviewed with satisfaction the progress made in the connectivity projects such as railways, transmissions lines, bridges and the ICPs, said the foreign ministry statement, the foreign secretary of Nepal thanked the government of India for the supply of fertilizers, easing of export restrictions on food grain, and delivery of dialysis machines.

“The two sides discussed an early conclusion of the renewed transit treaty, review of the trade treaty, and convening of the Inter-governmental Committee on Trade (IGC) at an early date.”

The two sides also expressed commitment to allow export of power from Nepal to India on a long-term basis utilizing all products of the exchange market, the statement added further.

“They also discussed technical upgrading of cross-border transmission lines and early approval of the four proposed transmission line projects under the LOC-IV.”

The Foreign Secretary of Nepal reiterated the request of the Government of Nepal for additional air-entry routes as well as early concurrence of the near border flight operation of the Gautam Buddha International Airport, Bhairahawa, said the statement by the foreign ministry.

The two foreign secretaries also agreed to finalise an MoU between foreign service academies of the two countries.