Map row: Nepal prime minister urges India to immediately withdraw its Army from Kalapani
KP Oli said that instead of trying to correct the map, it was important for Nepal to recover the land.
Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli said on Sunday that the Kalapani area at the tri-junction of Nepal, India and Tibet belongs to Nepal, and that India should “immediately withdraw” its Army from there, Nepal24Hours.com reported. There have been protests in Nepal against India’s move to place the Kalapani area inside its territory. Kalapani lies in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district.
“The government will not allow anybody to encroach even one inch of its land,” said Oli in his first public statement on the matter. “The neighbouring country should take its Army back from our territory.”
Earlier this month, India had said it had not made any change to its border with Nepal in a newly-released map and that it depicts its sovereign territory accurately. Nepal had on Wednesday objected to the Kalapani area being shown as part of Indian territory.
“Our map accurately depicts the sovereign territory of India,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said. “The boundary delineation exercise with Nepal is ongoing under the existing mechanism. We reiterate our commitment to find a solution through dialogue in the spirit of our close and friendly bilateral relations.”
Kumar said the two neighbours should guard against vested interests trying to create differences between them.
Oli on Sunday said that instead of trying to correct the map, it was important for Nepal to recover the land. “There is support of all to the government for nationality and national integrity,” he said. “I want to thank all for their strong support to the government. However, carrying out indecent activities in the name of patriotism is not right. We will resolve the problems through diplomatic channel.”
“The government is not incapable of holding the dialogues,” Oli said at a function of the Nepal Communist Party, Online Khabar reported. “It will remove the foreign troops. We have achieved national unity over this issue now.”
India had on November 2 issued a new map to show the newly formed Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Pakistan has rejected the map as it shows Kashmiri territory under its occupation as India’s.
