New Delhi:
India is evaluating strategic implications following China’s decision to occupy parts of Nepal’s territory amid Ladakh faceoff.
New Delhi is evaluating the exact location of the
Chinese encroachment in Nepal and its proximity to the Indian border and whether the move was made in connivance with a section of the
political leadership in
Kathmandu or by taking the KP Sharma Oli OIi government for a ride, ET has learned. In either case, it can further complicate India-China relations amid Beijing’s strategy to encroach upon its neigbours’ territory and creating security challenges.
Nepal watchers here feel it is time for the country’s top leadership, including PM Oli, to realise the futility of a tighter embrace with China. According to them, Oli’s closeness with Beijing as part of his attempts to save his chair has cast a shadow on Nepal-India ties.
India-China-Nepal share a tri-junction border point. In 1954, both India and China agreed to allow Indian Mansarovar-Kailash pilgrims to use the Lipulekh Pass. After the Chinese annexation of
Tibet in the 1950s, Nepal allowed India to put up 17 military checkpoints along its northern border. A joint communiqué in 2015 between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing listed Lipulekh as one of the Sino-Indian border passes through which the two countries agreed to conduct trade.
Meanwhile, China is using increased road construction in Tibet to encroach on Nepali land and may set up border outposts in these areas, according to a Nepal government report. Nepal agriculture ministry’s Survey Department report shows a list of 11 places, of which China has encroached upon 10 places comprising about 33 hectares of Nepali land, by diverting the flow of rivers which act as a natural boundary.