At maiden EPG-NIR meeting, Nepal seeks revision of treaties with India

Kathmandu, July 4: Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa on Monday iugurated the first meeting of the Eminent Persons Group-Nepal-India Relations (EPG-NIR) here and sought suitable changes in key bilateral treaties and agreements in the light of the changed global situation. Thapa, who is also Nepal’s Foreign Affairs Minister, called upon India to be ready to amend key treaties, agreements and arrangements signed by his country and India in the past.

He said the present global order and situation, including Nepal’s and India’s standing in the world, had become different in comparison with that in the 1950s. “We can’t ignore the changing dymics of relationship. The treaties, agreements and arrangements that guided our relations in the past may require appropriate revision to deal with the needs of the present times,” Thapa said.

He referred to Nepal’s persistent demand for the replacement of the Peace and Friendship Treaty of the 1950s inked between India and Nepal. Thapa said new ideas and approaches may be necessary to give bilateral relations a more appropriate course so as to create better understanding and to enhance mutual prosperity, peace and harmony.

It was with these aims that the EPG-NIT was established, he said. Bhagat Singh Koshyari, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and co-chair of the EPG-NIR from the Indian side, said India was open to discussion on any proposal that Nepal tables. “Nepal and India have the same blood group... so there are no differences between the two countries,” he said in his iugural speech. (IANS)