After Nepal seeks help, India flies in critically ill man from Australia

NEW DELHI: In the middle of the boundary row, India helped Nepal with the repatriation from Australia of a Nepali citizen facing a medical emergency and his family members. The Nepal government had earlier approached India for help in the matter.


Diplomatic sources said 1 of the 3 Nepali nationals flown in had to undergo a bone marrow transplant in Delhi.

"The second individual is the patient's brother who is also the donor and third their father," adding that they landed here on Monday evening in an Air India repatriation flight.

India had not opened its repatriation flights even to OCIs until a few days ago. Official sources said India's decision to help Nepal was in keeping with their unique friendship and deep-rooted people-to-people ties. Under the provisions of the 1950 friendship treaty, an official said, Nepali citizens have availed facilities on par with their Indian counterparts.

India's gesture follows an angry reaction last week to Nepal's release of a new map showing areas in India's Pithoragarh district as belonging to the neighbouring country. The Indian government called it an unjustified cartographic assertion and a unilateral act not based on historical facts and evidence.

After the excitement over the new map, in fact, Nepal seemed to be adopting a more conciliatory approach on Sunday with its foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali saying the best way to resolve the Kalapani issue was through dialogue.

He, however, made it clear there's no disputing the source of the Kali river which, according to Nepal, acts as its western boundary. While Nepal says it's located at Limpiyadhura, which it claims along with Kalapani area and Lipulekh Pass , India believes the source is to the south of where Nepal claims it is. For India, going by local revenue records, the area has been a part of Pithoragarh since 1830s.

"We have always said that the only way to resolve this issue is by negotiating in good faith. Without impulse or unnecessary excitement, and without prejudice, Nepal wants to resolve the border issues via dialogue," Gyawali was quoted as having said in Kathmandu .

Diplomatic sources here said Nepal was ready for a dialogue between the foreign secretaries through a video call. Nepal PM KP Oli though on Monday again blamed Indians entering Nepal "illegally" for the spread of Covid-19.

Gyawali also said that the only treaty to determine India-Nepal border was the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli. While there were 3 supplementary treaties after that - 1860, 1875 and 1920 - Gyawali claimed none of these treaties changed the fact that Nepal's western border was the Kali river.

"First there was no dispute over the origin of the Kali river, which actually originates from Limpiyadhura. Any other interpretation of the origin of the river is the manipulation of facts, and it does not have any legal justification," Gyawali said.