By TON Nepal

On Thursday China agreed to activate the existing boundary mechanisms through joint discussions. Mechanisms are anticipated to be made quickly during the Nepalese Foreign Minister's upcoming China visit. Nepal and China held a joint consultation meeting on border affairs held virtually between the officials of both sides which agreed to activate the existing boundary mechanisms and a formal decision will be announced soon in this regard.

Emphasizing the importance of a joint inspection of the Nepal-China boundary, the two sides decided to initiate the process of starting the existing mutual mechanisms through joint consultations. Nepal and China had a quarrel over pillar number 57 in Dolakha district which was a major bone of contention after the height of Mt Everest, which was settled in December 2020.

Besides pillar no 57, disputes have often surfaced in Humla, Gorkha, and Kimathanka (Sankhuwasabha), which need to be resolved through joint inspection. Further resolving the dispute, as per the boundary protocol, both sides may regularly update the status of the boundary every 10 years.

The 1963 Joint Boundary Protocol has instituted three different mechanisms to solve with boundary issues Joint Inspection Team, Joint Expert Group, and Joint Inspection Committee. The mechanisms were preserved in the Nepal-China Boundary Protocol signed between the two countries on January 20, 1963.

The Nepali side, during the official visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also the State Councilor of China, in March, had suggested making a mechanism in a bid to conduct a joint examination of the border and update the latest status. The Nepal-China border spans 1,439 kilometers. The officials of the two countries have yet to select whether to restart the work from where it was left in 2011 or start anew.

Once they settle this issue, the next meeting will take the decision of forming mutual mechanisms. Mechanisms may be made during the upcoming visit of the Foreign Minister to China in near future. The two countries signed the last (third) boundary protocol in 1988.

They created the three mechanisms in 2006 which worked until 2011. After 2011, both sides had hardly deliberated and took initiative to hold the boundary consultation meeting in order to conduct a joint inspection of the border.

After signing the protocol in 1963 which followed the signing of the Nepal-China Border Treaty in 1961, the two countries signed such procedures again in 1979 and 1988. When both sides were ready to sign the fourth protocol in 2011 and the Nepali team was all set to visit China, the voyage was annulled in the last hour after a dispute over pillar number 57 could not be settle at that time.

Since then, Nepal and China are unsuccessful to conduct a joint inspections of the border and update the status of the boundary, a precondition for signing the boundary protocol. The meeting took stock of the overall state of Nepal-China relations, and held discussion on various matters relating to boundary and border management between the two countries, the Foreign Ministry said.

During the virtual meeting, the two sides also decided to recommence two-way trade through Rasuwagadhi/Kerung border port, by following to Covid-19 health procedures and guidelines.

Nepali traders, who are doing business in China, have long been trying a recommencement of the two-way trade through the Rasuwagadhi/Kerung and Tatopani border points. Despite several requests from the Nepali side, China, citing the Covid pandemic issue and was unwilling to resume a full-fledged trade through the trading points. At the meeting, for the first time, both sides agreed to open another border point in far western Nepal as requested by Nepal.

In an opinion to support the livelihoods of the people in the northern Himalayan region of Nepal, the two sides decided to open the Hilsa/Purang border port for the conveyance of goods and construction materials from China. Senior officials of various ministries of the government of Nepal, chargé d-affairs of the Embassy of Nepal in Beijing, and consul general of Nepal in Lhasa participated in the bilateral consultation meeting.

The Chinese delegation comprised senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other numerous ministries of China, the Foreign Affairs Office and other departments in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, and the chargé d-affairs of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Kathmandu. It seemed that this virtual meeting between both sides are the beginning of the new relationship between Nepal and China.