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Nepal proposes 4-member EPG to review agreements with India

The Nepal government has proposed formation of a four-member Eminent Persons’ Group to review the existing bilateral agreements with India including the strategic Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950.

The EPG will be authorised to look into the entire gamut of Nepal-India relations.

It will get two years to come up with a comprehensive report on anything that needs to be amended in all bilateral treaties.

The proposal to form the EPG comes as the government prepares for Prime Minister’s visit to India scheduled for the second week of February.

The government formed  the EPG comes at a time when the bilateral relations between the two countries has marked a new low following the unofficial trade embargo imposed by India since Nepal promulgated the new Constitution on September 20 last year.

The Third Joint Commission Meeting of Nepal and India in July 2014 had decided to set up the EPG with four members from each side at the request of Nepal.

It is learnt that India has already formed a four member EPG.

The strategic Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950:

The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed by the last Prime Minister of Nepal, Mohan Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, and the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Chandreshwor Narayan Singh on 31 July 1950 and came into force the same day.

It has ten articles:

Article 1

  • There shall be everlasting peace and friendship between the Government of India and the Government of Nepal.

  • The two Governments agree mutually to acknowledge and respect the complete sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of each other,

Article 2

  • The two Governments hereby undertake to inform each other of any serious friction or misunderstanding with any neighboring State likely to cause any breach in the friendly relations subsisting between the two Governments.

Article 3

  • In order to establish and maintain the relations referred to in Article 1 the two Governments agree to continue diplomatic relations with each other by means of representatives with such staff as is necessary for the due performance of their functions.

Article 4

  • The two Governments agree to appoint Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls and other consular agents, who shall reside in towns, ports and other places in each other’s territory as may be agreed to.

Article 5

  • The Government of Nepal shall be free to import, from or through the territory of India, arms, ammunition or warlike material and equipment necessary for the security of Nepal.

Article 6

  • Friendly Industrial and economic development

Article 7

  • The Governments of India and Nepal agree to grant, on a reciprocal basis, to the nationals of one country in the territories of the other the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and other privileges of a similar nature.

Article 8
 

  • This Treaty cancels all previous Treaties, agreements, and engagements entered into on behalf of India between the British Government and the Government of Nepal.

Article 10

  • This Treaty shall remain in force until it is terminated by either party by giving one year’s notice.

Why treaty?

  • The rise of Communist China in 1949 and the subsequent invasion of Tibet heightened security concerns in both India and Nepal.

  • India had maintained good relations with Tibet, the Rana rulers of Nepal feared that China would support the Communist Party of Nepal and sponsor a communist revolution overthrowing their autocratic regime.

  •  With heightening concerns over the security threat to India presented by Communist China, which was seen as seeking to projecting power and influence over Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan and border disputes with India, the latter sought to strengthen its “Himalayan frontier” by forging an alliance on defense and foreign affairs with the Rana rulers of Nepal.

What are the critics  of the treaty?

  • Nepalese law does not permit an open border and Indians, by law, should not be able to buy lands and properties in Nepal or carry out businesses in their names.

  • The treaty has been unpopular especially among Pahari segments of Nepal.

  • The lands which were given to the East India Company according to the Sugauli Treaty must be returned to Nepal.

  • Agreements were manipulated in the favor of antidemocratic autocratic rule of Nepal where the power of the Nepali people is fragmented.

  • India and the Rana regime stepped up military and intelligence cooperation under treaty provisions, and India sent a military mission to Nepal which was regarded by leftist Nepalese as an undue extension of Indian influence in Nepal.

  • Nepal resented the growth of India’s regional power in the 1970s. The extensive Indian trade and economic influence was also resented by some in Nepal.

Similar treaties around the world:

  • Common Travel Area, a similar treaty existing between the UK and Ireland on freedom of movement

  • Union State, a similar treaty existing between Russia and Belarus on freedom of movement

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