Nudged by Beijing, Nepal objects to new strategic road India built to its disputed boundary with China

A new strategic road that India built from Dharchula in its Uttarakhand State to Lipulekh Pass near its disputed boundary with China has triggered a strong protest from Nepal.

A day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the 80-kilometer-long road from Dharchula to Lipulekh Pass, Nepal called it a “unilateral act” by India. Kathmandu argued that Lipulekh Pass was a part of the territory of Nepal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepalese Government issued a statement in Kathmandu, alleging that the road built by India went through the territory of Nepal and its construction ran against the understanding reached between the two nations that they would resolve the boundary dispute through negotiation.

New Delhi rejected the contention of Nepal, asserting that the new road lay completely within the territory of India. “The road follows the pre-existing route used by the pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Under the present project, the same road has been made pliable for the ease and convenience of pilgrims, locals and traders,” Anurag Srivastava, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi.

Singh had a video-conference in his office in New Delhi on Friday to remotely inaugurate the road amid the nationwide lockdown enforced to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. The road, which runs through treacherous terrain with altitude rising from 6000 feet to 17060 feet, was built by the Border Roads Organization (BRO) of the Ministry of Defence. It starts from Ghatiabgarh in Dharchula and ends in Lipulekh Pass – an India-China-Nepal tri-junction boundary point.

The road is one of the four New Delhi decided to expeditiously build to link high-altitude mountain passes along the Line of Actual Control – the de facto boundary between India and China – after the June-August, 2017 stand-off between Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army of the neighbouring communist country.

New Delhi, however, played down the strategic significance of the road and rather highlighted that it would make it easier for the pilgrims from India to travel to Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region of India.

Beijing, itself, has not yet reacted, but apparently nudged Nepal to lodge a strong protest over the new road built by India.

“The Government of Nepal has consistently maintained that as per the 1816 Sugauli Treaty, all the territories east of Kali (Mahakali) River, including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh, belong to Nepal,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Nepalese Government stated in Kathmandu. It called upon India to “refrain from carrying out any activity inside the territory of Nepal”.

It also alleged that Nepal had twice proposed to India dates for talks between the Foreign Secretaries of the two nations in order to restart the process of resolving the territorial dispute, but had not received any response from New Delhi.

Kathmandu had last raised its pitch on the India-Nepal territorial dispute in November 2019, when it had objected to the new political map of India.

The new map had been issued after reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir into two separate Union Territories. Nepal had objected to the map, alleging that it had shown Kalapani – the larger area comprising the Lipulekh Pass – as part of India. New Delhi had reacted to it by just stopping short of warning Kathmandu against allowing China to drive a wedge between India and Nepal.

India and China have been jockeying for influence in Nepal.

A recent squabble within the ruling Nepal Communist Party opened a new opportunity for Beijing not only to expand, but also to put on display its influence in the political circles in Kathmandu.

Though the rift between the party’s two chairpersons – Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and legendary Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal – came to the fore earlier this month, China’s envoy to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, had a series of meetings with both the leaders as well as other key politicians in the ruling dispensation to avert a flashpoint.

Kathmandu had earlier lodged a protest with both New Delhi and Beijing in 2015, when India and China had agreed to include Lipulekh Pass as a bilateral trade route without the consent of Nepal.