Overview
- India’s Ministry of External Affairs publicly rejected any role for China, the United Kingdom or other outside parties in the dispute, a position it stated on Tuesday during a weekly briefing.
- Prime Minister Balendra Shah told Nepal’s parliament that Kathmandu had been in touch with China and Britain and acknowledged some cross‑border encroachments, comments that triggered opposition protests and adjournments.
- The MEA said roughly 98 percent of the India‑Nepal frontier has been demarcated and that unresolved stretches are being jointly mapped because the Gandak river has shifted course and because of cases of occupation of no‑man’s land.
- Bilateral relations have shown recent frictions that affect diplomacy such as the cancellation of an Indian foreign secretary visit and disputes over meeting protocols even as Indian leaders held contacts with visiting Nepalese figures.
- The row traces to an unclear 1816 Treaty of Sugauli and competing claims over Kalapani, Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Susta, and the outcome could affect local cross‑border movement, pilgrim routes through Lipulekh and broader Nepal‑India ties.