Nepal not asking for mediation from third parties on border dispute with India: Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal

Published 7 June 2026 · local

Foreign Minister of Nepal Shisir Khanal said in New Delhi on Sunday (June 7, 2026) that Kathmandu is focused on establishing Nepali claim on the

Foreign Minister of Nepal Shisir Khanal said in New Delhi on Sunday (June 7, 2026) that Kathmandu is focused on establishing Nepali claim on the Kalapani-Lipulekh-Limpiyadhura trijunction and not “asking for mediation” from third parties. Addressing a press conference at the Embassy of Nepal, Mr. Khanal said the new government of Prime Minister Balendra Shah is not in favour of tying Nepal-India relations down to “old baggage” and said he represents a “completely new political reality in Nepal” that is determined to deliver “uncompromising good governance”. Also read | India, Nepal can decisively shift trajectory of bilateral ties to achieve full potential: Jaishankar “We want to solve our disputes through diplomatic processes. We just want to see if we can access some of the documents that might be in libraries or museums in the U.K. Our position was not that we were asking for mediation,” said Mr. Khanal, elaborating on Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s remarks in the parliament when he had said that Nepal is in contact with the U.K. and China on the Kalapani-Limpiyadhura-Lipulek dispute with India. “The problems that existed when British India left the region still persist, so we believe Britain also has a role to play in this matter,” Prime Minister Shah had said in the parliament that had stirred debates online and attracted a rebuttal from the Ministry of External Affairs that reiterated that India and Nepal have established bilateral mechanism for discussing the border dispute and that there is no scope for third party intervention in this case.

After a gap of a few years, the border issue between the two sides started simmering when India, on April 30, 2026, announced the Kailash-Manasarovar yatra for 2026 that was scheduled to be conducted in 20 batches with 50 pilgrims in each batch. The Ministry of External Affairs announced that the pilgrimage would be conducted “in coordination with the Government of the People’s Republic of China” through the Lipulek pass that is claimed by Nepal and the Nathu La pass of Sikkim. This announcement attracted a protest from Nepal that communicated its objection to both India and China. Responding to questions, Mr. Khanal said, “We have expressed our position through an official diplomatic note to both india and China. We have clearly said to both countries that the land (Kalapani-Lipulek-Limpiyadhura) belongs to us. That’s been our historical claim”. While dealing with the border dispute, Mr. Khanal argued that as the new generation of rulers who came to power after defeating the well established former dominant political players like the Nepali Congress and the Maoist parties (CPN-UML, CPN – Maoist-Centre), the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) refuses to “look at India through the distorted, hyper-sensitive lens of twentieth-century geopolitics.” “Instead, the Rastriya Swatantra Party wants to shift the entire vocabulary of Nepal-India relations away from geopolitical friction and square it firmly on Development Diplomacy,” said Mr. Khanal, who had held a formal meeting with External Affairs Minister S.