KATHMANDU, Feb 24: The seventh Members of the Eminent Persons Group on Nepal-India relations meeting will be held today and tomorrow.
The meeting will continue its dialogue urging the Indian side to rebuild relationships, revise the 1950 treaty, trade and transit, water resources, floods, and border issues among others. Since its inception in 2011, revision of the 1950 treaty to fit modern times has been a major agenda of Nepali side, a demand that India has turned a deaf ear to.
Nepal and India had agreed to form the EPG during the visit of then Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai to India in October, 2011. During the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal in July, 2014, the two countries had agreed to form the EPG comprising four members each with tenure of two years.
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“We have no new agenda. This meeting will dwell into same issues of Nepal-India relations,” Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, the coordinator of Nepal’s side said.
Nepal aims to make changes in four Articles of 1950’s treaty; Article 2, 5, 6 and 7. These articles urge exchange of information to avoid breach of friendship between the two countries, free import of arms, ammunition and necessary equipments for Nepal’s security from or through India.
Articles 6 and 7 talk about providing equal treatment to citizens of both countries to participate in industrial and economic development, grant concessions and contracts relating to such development, matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce among others.
Apart from Thapa, Nepal’s EPG team includes Surya Nath Upadhyay (former chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority), Nilambar Acharya (former law minister) and Rajan Bhattarai (CPN-UML leader).
The Indian EPG members comprise of Jayant Prasad (former Indian ambassador), Bhagat Singh Koshyari (senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader), Mahendra Lama (former vice-chancellor of Sikkim University) and BC Upreti (VIF senior fellow).
