Amid the border issues between India and Nepal, the Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli on Monday stated that the ongoing boundary disputes will be resolved only through diplomatic talks.
In a seminar titled, 'Nepal's International Border Security and Areas of Coordination among Border Management related Agencies', organised by the Nepal Army, Oli who is also the country's Defence Minister made this observation.
"In order to consolidate the Nepal-India ties in a cordial manner, we had to print the map and talk to India. Our relations could turn cordial by only returning our territory through dialogue. Border disputes are prevailing in Susta and Kanchanpur," he said.
Nepal and India has had boundary rows since long in the Susta and Kalapani area and during the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Nepal in 2014, both sides had delegated to resolve the dispute at Foreign Secretaries levels but they could not meet," Oli was quoted saying in an IANS report.
Oli stressed that bilateral relations between countries can only be sustainable through dialogues of facts, equality, respect, and justice instead of hegemonic strategies.
The two sides external ministries held talks which were left in deadlocks. The border issue surface between the two countries after Nepal chalked out a new map in May last year.
On the other hand, in November 2019, the Indian government came up with a new political map including Kalapani in its territory and Nepal objected the move.
As per reports, Nepal offered to settle the dispute through a dialogue several times, however, India suggested taking up the matter post-COVID crisis leading Nepal to unveil the new political map of the country incorporating the disputed territory. India immediately rejected the decision calling it a "cartographic assertion".
Addressing Monday's seminar, Oli further said, "We must retain our territory. Both nations should consider fact and truth in maintaining relations. Are both the countries in a position to claim other's territory?"
"There have been some historically-unsolved border problems. The issue of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani has remained unaddressed for the past 58 years. We were forced to get displaced silently when the then ruler did not dare to speak up against the intrusion," Oli said in the IANS report.
Oli said, "We need to assert a claim on our territory at any cost."
"We have been admonished and warned while claiming our territory," he said, adding that "there would be a dialogue in future to resolve the border disputes".
