Submit your Article

Three months after Nepal and India signed a preliminary agreement on long-term power trade, the Indian Cabinet has finally endorsed the deal under which the southern neighbor has agreed to buy 10,000 MW of electricity from Nepal in the next 10 years.

While Indian approval for the purchase of 10,000 MW of electricity from Nepal marks a major milestone in bilateral energy cooperation, it has come at a time when Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is preparing for a China visit, during which Nepal plans to seal power trade agreement with the northern neighbor.  

The endorsement from the Indian Cabinet has paved the way for signing long-term power trade between India and Nepal. Nepal has been requesting the southern neighbor for a long-term power trade deal arguing that an inter-government agreement would lock in the market and end the unpredictability of the Indian market’s availability for electricity from Nepal in the long run. With a gradual increment in electricity generation in the past few years, Nepal has been looking for a market for its electricity export to avoid energy spillage. 

While Nepal wanted to sign the final deal during Prime Minister Dahal’s India visit in the first week of June, the signing was delayed as it was yet to be passed by the Indian Cabinet. Both countries then planned for the third week of June for agreement signing for which Energy Secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire did travel to New Delhi. However, it was again postponed as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was busy on an abroad visit. 

Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal, spokesperson at the Energy Ministry said that they have received information that the draft of the long-term electricity trade agreement has been approved by the Indian Cabinet. “We are yet to receive the official letter on it,” said Bhetuwal. However, Shankar Prasad Sharma, Nepali Ambassador to India, confirmed this on social media, saying that “India’s cabinet approval to purchase 10,000 MWs of electricity from Nepal in the next ten years has paved the way to develop a new road map for electricity development in Nepal. This could play a significant role in the economic development and restructuring of Nepal.”

According to Energy Ministry officials, energy secretaries of both countries will now sign the intergovernmental agreement for medium-term and long-term electricity trade. The Energy Ministry plans to sign the agreement amid a special program in Kathmandu. 

According to NEA officials, with an umbrella agreement in place, electricity can be sold through long-term agreements spanning from 7-25 years, as well as medium-term agreements spanning 2-7 years. 

The agreement is an umbrella agreement that will pave the way for power trading agencies in Nepal and India such as Nepal Electricity Authority and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) to enter into a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA). The NEA and NVVN will sign a separate agreement for commercial deals. 

The long-term power deal has become of paramount importance for Nepal with the country’s electricity generation capacity gradually increasing. If the market for Nepali electricity is not ensured, the country faces the risk of electricity spillage every year, especially during the wet season.  In the rainy season last year, the country’s electricity spillage reached as high as 800 MW during the festive period in October and November.

The country’s generation capacity has already reached nearly 2,700 MW which requires more exports to India to avoid spillage in the rainy season when power plants start generating power at their full capacity.

India allows Nepal to export additional 180 MW of electricity 

India has also allowed Nepal to sell an additional 180 MW of electricity to its market. Nepal has already received approval to export 452 MW to India. With an additional 180 MW of electricity export now allowed, total energy exports to India have reached 632 MW. 

Of the 180 MW, 70 MW will be exported from Tanakpur in western Nepal to Uttar Pradesh while 110 MW will be exported to another Indian state of Haryana through Dhalkebar-Muzaffpur 400 KV cross-border transmission line. 

According to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), India has allowed the export of electricity from 83 MW Dudhkosi Project, and 27 MW Lamjung’s Dordi Corridor under the medium-term agreement. Similarly, the electricity from 37 MW Upper Chameliya, and 33 MW Upper Kalangada projects will be exported from Tanakpur. 

Nepal which has been selling its electricity to India's day-ahead market since Nov 2021, has recently been allowed to sell electricity to its real-time market also. 

While conducting foreign policy, we should seek to strike a balance between our two neighbors—India and China. We can change friends but not neighbors. The onus is also on us to maintain a cordial and balanced relationship with both of our neighbors. We have to be able to convince the two neighbors about our concerns and hear out their core concerns as well.  Keeping a balanced relationship with two of our neighbors is the only way to move forward.

As for electricity trade, India is the only market for our electricity, so we have to be flexible while negotiating with India on this issue. 

As India is the only buyer of our electricity, we have to heed its concerns too. Because of this constraint, we have some difficulties and compulsions when it comes to selling electricity. 

We have to keep our national interests at the center while conducting foreign policy. 

The author is a former PM and president of the Nepali Congress 

India has endorsed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to purchase electricity from Nepal.

Under this agreement, India has agreed to import 10,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from Nepal in the next ten years.

According to Nepal's ambassador to India, Dr Shankar Prasad Sharma, the federal Council of Ministers of India formally endorsed the agreement on the power trade with Nepal and India shared information about this through social media X (twitter).

He said the decision would contribute to accelerating Nepal's economic development and restructuring efforts.

The MoU was initially signed between the two countries during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's latest visit to India (May 31-June 3, 2023) and at the time the Prime Minister termed the moment historic. Energy secretaries from both countries signed and exchanged the document.

Following India's latest decision to endorse the agreement, the energy secretaries from both neighboring countries will participate in a special ceremony to formally resign it.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Hydro Resources and Irrigation and Spokesperson for the Ministry, Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal said they were unofficially informed about the official decision of the Indian government to endorse the agreement and expect to receive an official confirmation regarding the decision.

With the decision, the door to export the electricity produced in the Indian market in an easy and smooth manner has been opened.

Nepal had been urging for power export in the Indian market in short-term, mid-term and long-term. 

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has been exporting 452 megawatt electricity in the Indian Energy market on a daily basis. 

Nepal and India had signed a power trade agreement in 2014. The Indian Company, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, is constructing a 900-megawatt Arun III hydropower project. Although the Indian company, GandhI Mallikarjun Rao, has been said to construct a 900-megawatt Upper Karnali hydropower project, it has not been started yet.

Similarly, Indian companies have forwarded necessary processes for the construction of different projects including Lower Arun, West Seti and SR-6.

An agreement has been reached between Nepal and India to construct some projects after preparing joint investment.

Nepal has been making preparations to export 40-megawatt electricity in Bangladesh soon.

The private sector has been demanding the government to grant permission for power trade. The proposed new electricity bill has made this arrangement.

The Cabinet meeting held on August 29 had given permission to the Energy Ministry to table the electricity bill in the Federal Parliament.

The Birgunj Metropolitan City has decided to close the schools after 2 pm on Monday to see the match between Nepal and India.

The match between Nepal and India under the Asia Cup will start from 2: 45 pm at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Issuing a notice on Monday, the Education Department of the Metropolitan City has decided to close all the public and private schools after 2 pm.

The Janakpurdham Sub-Metropolitan City of Madhes Province has already decided to close all the schools after 2 pm to see the match.

Today’s match is considered very important for Nepal and India.

The senior teams of Nepal and India are facing each other for the first time.

After playing international cricket for almost three decades, Nepal's senior team is playing against cricket superpower India today.

Once again, the map controversy has surfaced but this time around it’s not between Nepal and India but between China and Nepal. The fresh controversy followed as China issued what it calls its ‘standard map’, which does not include Nepal’s new official map. 

China’s new map has created uproar not only in its neighborhood but much beyond, with the list of countries objecting to the map increasing by the day. In the case of Nepal, the latest map controversy seems to have emerged partly from the way governments dealt with this sensitive issue in the past. 

The recent statement from Nepal’s Foreign Minister indicates that the new map was not officially submitted or communicated to countries including China. If that is the case, it shows double standards on the part of Nepali politicians, who have the habit of doing politics even on serious issues like foreign policy and national security.

The author is a geopolitical analyst 

The post-Cold War unipolar world has been shaken badly by the 9/11 attacks and the war on terrorism that followed achieved partial success leading to the compulsive pullout of the US forces from Afghanistan. The relationship between the US and China remained strained due to the trade war and the conflicting interests over Taiwan and the South China Sea. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war does not see any prospects of settlement soon, thus Ukraine is bound to suffer and face more destruction. Strategic mistakes were made by both Russia and Ukraine, but NATO gained valuable intelligence about the Russian war capability. African countries have been facing civil wars leading to major humanitarian crises and military coups in some of these countries signal no good days on the horizon. The ever-changing geo-political dynamics of this century are thus becoming more challenging.

Asia seems relatively quiet and peaceful because many of the volatile areas and issues have been back burnered. In spite of several border skirmishes, India-China trade continues to boom. The cross-border terrorist activities in Kashmir and the long outstanding border issues of India with both China and Pakistan have led to a strained relationship between them. The existing deadlock is not likely to be resolved soon, thus making the Himalayan region a flashpoint for potential conflicts which may even push the three nuclear nations to a war.

Now, is there any possibility to avoid or at least mitigate such a scenario? The answer would be both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. China has an all-weather good relationship with Pakistan whereas it remains only fair weather with India; and looking back to their historical enmity and existing animosity the answer most likely would be a ‘No’. However, this projection based mainly on their geopolitical and strategic perspectives may not be that accurate if the perceived notion is examined from the economic perspective. A million-dollar question thus would be—what are such possibilities?

National aspirations

India and China both have their own national aspirations. India wants to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and become a superpower over time. India qualifies for this because of her economic and technological advancement. China wants to expand its influence globally through the Bridge and Road Initiative (BRI) and become the first economic power well before the mid-21st century. This entails keeping herself safe against containment from superpowers and avoiding direct conflicts. These national aspirations could be the motivating and driving factors for both India and China to come closer. 

International financial institutions have projected that the 21st century will be the Asian century. The Chinese and Indian economies have already left the US economy behind in terms of their Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), nevertheless, the USA is still the number one in both economic and military power and will remain so for some time to come.  However, China and India are likely to supersede the US economy soon. Besides, the US economy would be affected by the de-dollarization initiative and the possible introduction of BRICS currency. Now, what happens if India and China closely cooperate and collaborate for larger economic interests and ally together for the realization of their national aspirations? If this materializes, the realization of the 21st century as the Asian century will happen earlier. India and China together will be the biggest economic and military power in the world and will be in the position to dictate global terms, thus ending the era of a unipolar world. 

Here, a hypothesis ‘the Western world would neither allow China and India to ally nor would they allow them to go to a war’, could be put to test. If they ally, they together will dominate the world and if they go to war, the possibility of a nuclear conflict cannot be denied; and both scenarios will be inconsistent with the interest of the Western power.

In the present scenario, could India ever become a permanent member of the UNSC? Will the best diplomatic and calculated strategic relationship with the USA help India realize her national aspiration? The existing defense dependency on Russian military hardware (more than 70 percent) and the relationship persisting since the Cold War period would not allow India to deviate from its basic strategic line for some time. Since Russia and China are strategically close and aligned, aligning with these two superpowers is likely to help India realize its national aspiration, which is unlikely by a piggyback from the USA. 

Therefore, the national aspirations and huge economic interest are likely to outweigh the military interest and competition, thus encouraging China and India to come closer. Through such cooperation and collaboration, the BRI gets the opportunity to access the Indian and South Asia markets which would, amongst other advantages, help China for the realization of its national aspiration.

Now a million-dollar question arises: Who would or can make this happen? Obviously, this will not happen on its own and some country or statesman has to take initiatives to facilitate the process. Here comes the possible role of Nepal and some of its acceptable statesmen who could lead a Track-II initiative. Nepal could play the role of a lynchpin between India and China. The BRI could be made a tool and the BRI passing through Nepal would bring India and China closer to materializing their national aspirations. The contentious issue between India and Pakistan would become a non-issue once China and India align; many of the outstanding and contentious issues between the three countries would fall in place through an amicable way out. The end result would be the peace that would prevail in the volatile South Asian Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya region as a whole.

In linear thinking, this proposal not only looks like wishful thinking but an absurd one. The issues are not as simple as debated above but also are not unachievable. Since most complicated issues generally have simple solutions, so could this be. The matching chemistry between the present leaderships of China and India could be an opportunity for turning this thinking into reality.

The author is Brig Gen (Retd) of Nepali Army and General Secretary of the Nepal Institute for Strategic Studies

It was 53 years ago, on 21 Nov 1963, that a small rocket brought on a bicycle took off from Thumba village on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, India, announcing the birth of the modern space age in the country. The sleepy palm-fringed village soon came to be known as Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS) and later became Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).

Till 1963, the Thumba village in South India’s Kerala province would not have merited a second look. A quintessential fishing hamlet with thatched huts, coconut groves and calm sea, it was an unlikely setting for a rocket launch station. However, it did have something that caught the interest of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India’s space programme—a small church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene that was located on the earth’s magnetic equator (most ideal for space missions).

Dr Sarabhai with fellow scientists went to the village to talk to the then-bishop. They were interested in acquiring the church and nearby land for their first rocket launch. Instead of giving them a definite answer, the bishop, Reverend Peter Bernard Pereira, asked them to attend the Sunday mass where he would put the question to the parishioners.

Thanks to the bishop’s efforts, the permission was granted. The paperwork was done and the villagers relocated to a new site with a brand new church in just 100 days. The bishop’s home was converted into an office, the church became the workshop, and cattle sheds served as storage houses and laboratories. Undeterred by the little funding and few facilities, a handful of enthusiastic young Indian scientists began assembling their first rocket.

Back then, even rocket parts and payloads were transported by bullock carts and bicycles to the launch pad. It was in these unassuming settings that India staged its first launch—a Nike-Apache rocket supplied by NASA—in 1963.

Sixty years later, Thumba is the hub of all space programs of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thumba has given India launch vehicles, geo-stationary and  finest remote sensing satellites.

The little church, which helped India reach for the stars, now houses a space museum replete with a fascinating array of rockets, satellites and other astronomical equipment.

A space race between India and Russia-China?

It is widely accepted that India and Russia (supported by China) were in a race to become the first country to land on the South Pole of the Moon. India launched its moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, on a leisurely five-week trajectory aiming to land on 23 Aug 2023. Russia launched its Luna-25 mission after India’s launch and targeted to land on the South Pole of the Moon three days ahead of India’s mission. Luna-25, equipped with powerful rockets, could reach lunar orbit by using a shorter trajectory. Unfortunately it crashed into the moon’s surface, after an engine firing, intended to fine-tune its descent, went awry. The Russian spacecraft was aiming to land near the intended location of a joint base that space agencies in China and Russia announced in 2021 and agreed to build together.

Three other countries, the US, China, and the former Soviet Union, have also achieved soft lunar landings, but none has ever reached the South lunar pole, and that’s not for lack of trying.

The moon’s South Pole is one of the harder places on the lunar surface to land because it is heavily boulder strewn, without the wide, flat expanses. Of the spacecraft that have crashed in the South Pole, none got close enough to try to negotiate the boulder fields. ISRO was able to do so, briefly placing Chandrayaan-3 in hover mode above the surface while it looked for a clear parking spot, is a testament both to the nimbleness of the ship and the deft touch of the engineers in mission control.

Is Russia lagging behind?

China sent a delegation to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East to attend the launch of Luna-25 which was the first Russian spacecraft to attempt a moon landing since the end of the Soviet Union.

In early 2021, Roscosmos—the Russian space agency—and the China National Space Administration signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly establish an International Lunar Research Station by the mid-2030s. But now, behind the scenes, China already recognizes that Russia is of limited value as a space partner. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Chinese media have downplayed Russia’s role in the lunar base.

Despite the Luna-25 failure, the head of Russia’s space agency declared a “new race to exploit the Moon’s resources has begun”, and there would be a potential crewed Russian-Chinese mission in the future.

In the Sino-Russian relationship, Russia is now well and truly the junior partner. Its aging technology pales in comparison with the leaps of modernisation we have witnessed in relation to China’s progress in space. Challenging the new rising star in space, India, would also not be so easy for the cash-starved Russia.

The author is Consultant Editor based in New Delhi

With India reeling under tomato shortage, the export of Nepali tomatoes to the southern neighbor has surged dramatically in the past one month. Nepal has exported 670 tons of tomatoes to India in Shrawan (mid-July to mid-August).

The preliminary data of the Department of Customs shows tomatoes worth Rs 8.7m were exported from Nepal to India. According to traders, the shortage of tomatoes in the Indian market has increased demand for Nepali tomatoes, resulting in a sharp rise in exports. The demand for Nepali tomatoes has increased especially from border Indian cities.

The Customs Department officials said major customs offices saw a huge shipment of tomatoes from Nepal to India in the past one month, especially through Birgunj, Bhairahawa, and Kakarbhitta customs. According to Shovakant Poudel, Director General at the Customs Department, tomatoes were exported to India in high volume in the last one month. According to traders, 15-20 tons are being exported to India from Birgunj, the main custom point of the country.

Due to substantial exports of tomatoes by Nepali traders to India, the domestic markets are grappling with supply limitations, leading to significant price surges. The wholesale price of large tomatoes rose steeply by a staggering 385 percent, from Rs 35 per kg to an astonishing Rs 170 per kg.

With traders preferring exports to India, the supply of tomatoes to Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market has declined by 50 percent. “The supply of tomatoes has fallen to 35 tons per day from earlier 65 tons,” said Binay Shrestha, information officer at the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market Development Board. According to Shrestha, the local market in Kathmandu is currently getting tomatoes from three neighboring districts—Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur.

The tomato exports to India surged in the last two months as the southern neighbor experienced a shortage of tomatoes. While Nepal has been requesting India to facilitate the imports of vegetables including tomatoes, the southern neighbor has restricted the tomato imports.

However, faced with a shortage and steep price rise, India in the first week of August lifted import restrictions on tomatoes. The relaxation of quarantine rules for Nepali tomatoes will last till October 31, according to officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

Tomato production decreased in India, especially in the top 10 tomato-producing states - Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Bihar, leading to a steep price rise.

Given the Indian restriction, tomatoes have never been among Nepal’s significant export items to India, despite the country’s export of various agricultural products like tea, cardamom, cabbage, and ginger. In the fiscal year 2022/23, the top three export commodities to India were refined palm oil, soybean oil, and cardamom.

However, tomato exports to India did surge in the last fiscal year to 1094 tons compared to 40 kg in 2021/22.  Interestingly, these 1094 tons of exports happened in Ashar (mid-June to mid-July), which is the last month of the Nepali fiscal year.

Nepali farmers grow tomatoes on 22,600 hectares and produce more than 432,000 tons annually, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, Nepali farmers cultivate tomatoes across an area of over 22,000 hectares and produce over 400,000 tons annually. In 2021/22, Nepal produced 422,703 tons of tomatoes on 22,911 hectares.

However, Nepal still imports a huge quantity of tomatoes from India every year. The latest data from Customs Department shows the country imported 42,105.60 tons of tomatoes totaling Rs 610.86m in 2022/23.

Not so long ago, the government of Nepal advised the people not to opt for panic buying of grains, stating that there was enough grain stock to outlast the upcoming harvest season. 

But the ‘comfortable situation’ appears to have changed all of a sudden.  

Recently, the government of Nepal wrote to India asking for 155,000 tons of grains and sugar, stating that India's global ban on grain export may affect Nepal too.

Spokesperson at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Radhika Aryal, confirmed that the government had written to the Indian government asking for the supply of 100,000 tons of rice, 50,000 tons of sugar and 5,000 tons of paddy.

“The letter has been sent to the Embassy of India in Nepal via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but the official reply from the Indian government has not been received yet,” said Aryal.

India has imposed a ban on the export of non-Basmati rice across the globe despite objections from the international community. The export policy of non-Basmati white rice, semi milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed, is amended from “free to prohibited,” reads a notice from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

The price of rice, Nepal’s staple food, has been escalating in the domestic market right after India announced a global ban on the export of all varieties of rice, save the Basmati. The Indian ban came after Russia announced its withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Deal in the midst of the Ukraine war, straining a war-hit supply system and aggravating the global food crisis.

The export will be allowed on the basis of permission granted by the Indian government to other countries to meet their food security needs and based on the request of their government.

Before this move, the government had been saying that there was enough gain stock to last three months after which a new harvest season will begin. Despite the government’s assurance, panic buying has been going unabated and the traders have been making hay. As for sugar, the government has said domestic production was not enough to meet the demand.

In 2016, Nepal-India relations were at one of their all time lows because of India’s economic blockade. The then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kamal Thapa, frequently traveled to India to convince the Indian side to lift the blockade which had severely affected life in Nepal.

In one of the meetings with his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, Thapa had proposed forming a panel on Nepal-India Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG), as agreed by the two countries in 2014, to seek experts’ suggestions to settle the long-standing issues between Nepal and India, including the revision of the 1960 Treaty of Peace and Friendship to reflect the present day realities.

Former foreign minister Thapa shared such information while speaking at a program organized by Tanka Prasad Acharya Memorial Foundation on Friday.

Initially, recalls Thapa, Swaraj was reluctant to form such a panel as the bilateral ties between the two countries were going through a rocky patch, but she agreed eventually. The Nepali side announced its EPG members, all of them picked by Thapa without consulting major political parties and stakeholders.

The names were endorsed by the Cabinet of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Former Nepali ambassador to India, Nilambar Acharya, remembers Thapa calling him one evening and asking him to become an EPG member. Acharya asked Thapa for some time to think about the offer, but the latter insisted that the decision had to be made right then and there.

Though it was an expert panel, there were no experts representing the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center) and Madhes-based parties. Still, the non-represented parties had no issue with the formation of the EPG, as most of the members were non-political figures. The only politician in the EPG, Nepal, was Rajan Bhattarai of the CPN-UML. From India, it was Bhagat Singh Koshiyari of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In 2018, the EPG prepared its report with its suggestions to the governments of Nepal and India. But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to receive the report. This turndown essentially halted the progress of the EPG report.  During his India visit in May this year, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal did not raise the EPG issue with Prime Minister Modi lest it should spoil the improving relationship between Nepal and India.

Former Prime Minister and UML leader Oli is probably the only leader who has been consistently and publicly speaking about the importance of the EPG report. Other political parties, mainly the NC and Maoist, seem to have no interest in the issue. 

In a public program on Saturday, Oli said that the Nepal-India relations should move ahead “as per the suggestions provided by the EPG report.” He said the report will serve as a prescription to push forward the ties between the two countries.

It has been more than five years since the EPG report was prepared, and the chances of it moving ahead are slim. Already, discussions have begun on what to do with the report.  Thapa, the former foreign minister, has suggested that members submit the report to Nepali side and close the chapter on the whole issue. As the report has already submitted its report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal, it can be argued that the EPG has no legal existence.  

There are some people who are demanding that the report must be made public at least, if the two governments are not ready to receive it. EPG Nepal coordinator Thapa says he holds the key to the cupboard where the report has been stored and he has been trying to hand it over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He adds being the keeper of the report has become a huge burden for him.There are multiple reasons behind the sorry state of the EPG report. First one, obviously, is the composition of the EPG without representations from major political parties.

 But there are those who argue that since the EPG was a panel of experts, there was no need for a party-wise representation. The only thing lacking, they say, is the consensus of parties and involvement of major political actors. The NC, Maoists and Madhes-based parties are not willing to take ownership of the EPG report.

It should also be noted that the Indian side was never in favor of forming a panel for the purpose of, among other things, suggesting revision to the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty. Several issues that the EPG was dealing with were heavily politicized.

Experts reiterate that there should be a national consensus for the EPG report to move ahead.

Though the report is yet to be made public, the Indian side has expressed dissatisfaction over some provisions that were leaked through the media.

The document has recommended establishing smart borders in order to limit the seamless cross-border movement. In 2018, The Wire reported:  “EPG has suggested that a technology-driven structure should be put in place for monitoring the movement along the international boundary, with identity cards as the mode of registration.”

Another point that the Nepal side has proposed is ensuring full independence to purchase arms and ammunition from third countries. To this end, Nepal is intending to change the Article 5 of Treaty which says: “The Government of Nepal shall be free to import from or through the territory of India, arms, ammunition or war-like materials and equipment necessary for the security of Nepal.”

This provision provides full right to Nepal to import arms but protocol to the Nepal-India Treaty of Transit states that “arms, ammunition and hazardous cargo shall not be allowed to be transported by road.” Similarly, Nepal-India Railway Agreement is not sufficient to allow the transit of arms and ammunition from India, experts say.

Similarly, the letter of exchange to this treaty bars Nepal’s independent right to import arms and ammunition from India. The paragraph-2 of Letter of Exchange says: “Any arms, ammunition or war-like material and equipment necessary for the security of Nepal that the Government of Nepal may import through the territory of India shall be so imported with the assistance and agreement of the government of India.

 The government of India will take steps for the smooth and expeditious transport of such arms and ammunition through India.” Nepal prefers to scrap both Article 5 and Letter of Exchange with a view that it is fully independent to import arms and other equipment as per its need.

 The 2007 India-Bhutan Friendship Treaty had also changed a similar clause in the 1949 version. The new treaty says that Bhutan can import arms as long as Indian interests are not harmed and there is no re-export of the weapons, either by the government or individuals.

Article 6 and 7 in the current treaty encompass the issue of “national treatment” and equal privileges for citizens on each other’s soil. While the spirit has been preserved to an extent, the EPG members have apparently backed Nepal’s position that the Himalayan republic should be able to institute more protection for its own citizens due to the asymmetry in size and economy between the two neighbors.

Nepal is of the view that such provisions are disadvantageous to a small country like Nepal, and given its population, economy and size, it cannot offer equal treatment to Indian citizens in Nepal.  Another bone of contention between the two countries is Article 2 of the treaty that states: “The two governments hereby undertake to inform each other of any serious frictions or misunderstanding with any neighboring state likely to cause any breach in the friendly relations subsisting between the two governments.” 

 Nepal is of the view that as this provision is not implemented, it is better to scrap. There has been war between India and Pakistan and India and China since the signing of the treaty, but India has not informed Nepal of the tensions.  Similarly, there has not been any military alliances between the two countries. 

Academicians and policy-makers in New Delhi say that India sought Nepal’s favor when there was Doklam crisis in 2017, and Nepal may be asked to take side by India if there is escalating tensions between two countries in coming days. Since the 1962 China-India war, Nepal has maintained a neutral position vis-à-vis India-China conflict and war.

 Along with these key provisions, Nepal has proposed to make changes in several other provisions of bilateral treaties and agreements in trade, transit and other areas, but Nepal’s major concern is the 1950 treaty. 

The main purpose behind the formation of EPG was to suggest ways on how to amend the treaty. There are also views on whether it was prudent to form a panel like the EPG to deal with sensitive issues between two countries.

 Some experts say the two countries should have instead formed government-level mechanisms to work out the outstanding issues, which they can still do with national political consensus. 

As the youths are leaving abroad for foreign jobs and the land plots in the rural areas are left barren, the country has imported millet worth Rs 513 million in the last fiscal year from India.

In the fiscal year 2079/80 BS, millet import reached Rs 513 million from Kakadbhitta customs point.

According to the Information Officer at the Plant Quarantine Office in Kakadbhitta Chandra Kishor Thakur, a total of 16,035 metric tons of millet was imported from Kakadbhitta customs point.

Likewise, pumpkins worth Rs 57.7 million were imported from India in the last fiscal year from Kakadbhitta customs point, according to Thakur.

Similarly, chilly worth almost Rs 200 million was imported from Kakadbhitta customs point in the fiscal year 2079/80 BS, Thakur said. 

Thakur said that fruits and vegetables including onion, tomato, long guard, yam, watermelon, ginger and others worth billions were imported during the time from India.

However, the local producers in the eastern districts have complained of limited market for the domestic products due to unrestricted imports of vegetables and fruits from India and other countries.