During the NDTV World’s ‘Anviksha’ India-Nepal Dialogue on Thursday, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with India. He characterized the issue as a common occurrence between neighboring countries, stating, “only neighbours will have boundary problems.” Khanal emphasized that the situation is “not as big as it is made out to be,” suggesting that it should not be overstated in discussions between the two nations.
“Only neighbours will have boundary problems. If you’re not a neighbour, you would not have that problem. I mean, we have very open borders. It’s unique in the world. “But obviously, there are some issues. It’s not as big as it’s often made out in narratives. “And in that most of the boundary work has been completed, but there are a couple of strong politically charged hotspots on both sides, and my priority as a foreign minister and something that I’d communicated when I was in Delhi last time also is that the problems are obvious between two neighbours. In many areas, but what I would like to see is our mechanisms meet frequently, talk, discuss, as we discuss more, we come to the truth.
People can just walk without any paper, pretty much,” the 47-year-old Minister told NDTV. “While close to 98 per cent of the India-Nepal boundary has been demarcated, there are some unresolved segments.
The Minister acknowledged that there are “some issues” and that mechanisms are in place to deal with it. Most of these are between Nepal and India and there are many different mechanisms, and among them is one area of boundary and border management as well,” the Minister said. So I take that approach, and what I’m very happy about in the last few months is that Nepal and India’s mechanisms have begun to function,” he said. The shifting of the course of the Gandak river has resulted in this situation,” the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson had said.
