Efforts to enhance energy and connectivity ties dominated the agenda of PM Narendra Modi’s meeting with his visiting Nepal counterpart P K Dahal Prachanda that saw the two countries sign seven agreements and launch six projects, including inauguration of new railway services.
Modi assured Prachanda that India will work to take the relationship to Himalayan heights and resolve the boundary dispute between India and Nepal in the same spirit. Among the highlights of the summit meeting was a revised transit agreement that will allow Nepal access to India’s inland waterways for the first time. India also acceded to Nepal’s proposal to export power to Bangladesh through Indian territory, while announcing it will ramp up its own power import from Nepal to 10,000 MW in the next 10 years. Nepal currently exports 450 MW to India.
The Nepal PM urged PM Modi to address the dispute over the Kalapani territory in Uttarakhand through the established mechanism of foreign secretary-level talks. Following India’s own 2019 revised map, Nepal had issued a new political map in 2020 claiming territory under India’s control and asking Indian soldiers to withdraw, a move India saw as a unilateral act not backed by any historical fact or evidence.
These relations (with India) stand on the solid foundation built, on the one hand, by the rich tradition of civilisational, cultural socio-economic linkages and, on the other, by the two countries’ firm commitment to the time-tested principles of sovereign equality, mutual respect, understanding and cooperation,’’ said Prachanda in his media remarks after the meeting, adding India’s continued support and goodwill remained important for Nepal.
Modi said India’s partnership had been a hit, recalling his own acronym HIT (Highways, I-ways and Transways) for the future India-Nepal ties during his first visit to Nepal as PM in 2014. “Today, we took some important decisions to turn this into a super hit partnership. The transit agreement will facilitate use of new rail routes and inland waterways for the people of Nepal,” Modi said, while listing the agreement and projects that encompassed areas like rail connectivity, power, petroleum pipeline and cross-border financial payments.
The two countries signed a long-term power trade agreement under which, as Modi said in his remarks to the media, India has set a target of importing 10,000 MW of electricity from Nepal in the coming 10 years.