India positive to review 1950 treaty: EPG

Kathmandu, Feb. 25: The Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) on Nepal-India relations Sunday said that India was positive on reviewing all the past treaties and agreements reached with Nepal, including the treaty of 1950. 

As both the neighbours are ready to take the relations between the two countries to newer heights, the EPG is prescribing win-win solutions which will address the concerns of both the countries, said Bhagat Singh Koshyari, India Coordinator of the EPG at a press meet organised following the conclusion of the 7^th meeting of  the EPG in Kathmandu. 

The meeting had begun on Saturday and concluded today.

“I would like to assure one and all on behalf of the Indian government that, we won’t let anyone be disappointed in terms of Nepal-India bilateral relations,” he said.

 Koshyari is also a leader of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.

Nepal Coordinator of the EPG Bhekh Bahadur Thapa said that the meeting deliberated on various bilateral issues such as reforms in the past treaties, border management and encroachment and security matters. 

“There were also discussions on security sensitivity, water resources, trade and cultural relations. We are hopeful for the reforms in the bilateral relations as the discussions were very positive,” he said.

The EPG from both the countries has prepared drafts on all the pertinent issues. 

Thapa said that the EPG is trying to build similar opinion in terms of the management of open border and national security. He also said that the EPG would submit its report to the government within the given timeframe. 

Thapa is a former Foreign Affairs Minister, Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, and Ambassador of Nepal to the United States of America and India. 

The next meeting of EPG will be held in New Delhi, India in the last week of March.

It has another five months’ time till July 2018. The date is non-extendable.

It met in July 2016 for the first time. 

According to Thapa, the next meeting in New Delhi will also discuss on the topics and refine the draft proposals, only then the draft will be given the final shape. 

The government, through a Cabinet decision, had decided to form the EPG in January 2016 in line with the agreement reached between the two countries, signed by the then Foreign Affairs Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj during the joint commission meeting of Nepal-India held in Kathmandu in July 2014. 

EPG Nepal team have Thapa, Nilambar Acharya, Rajan Bhattarai and Surya Nath Upadhyaya while the Indian team include Koshyari, Jayant Prasad, BC Upreti and Mahendra P. Lama. 

Published in The Rising Nepal, 26 February 2018.