While Nepal is contemplating letting China and Pakistan open consulates in Terai towns bordering India, New Delhi conveyed strong displeasure to Kathmandu, indicating that the move could undermine the support the monarchy enjoys in India
A report in an Indian daily suggests that while China is ready to open a consulate in Biratnagar near eastern Nepal-Bihar border, Pakistan is keen to open its shop in Birgunj near central Nepal-Bihar border, where India has just recently set up a consulate.
King Gyanendraïs move to draw in China and Pakistan along the sensitive and open and porous Indo-Nepal border, might not force New Delhi to soften its policies vis-a-vis Nepal. But by drawing closer to China and Pakistan, King Gyanendra might end up achieving a hardening of Indian positions
The Indian constituencies where the King enjoys support, such as the RSS (Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh) and sections of the security establishment, might want to draw the line at letting the King facilitate Chinese and Pak activity on the Indo-Nepal border.
The report comes days after Beijing’s ambassador to Kathmandu, Sun Heping, assured an audience in Nepal that requests made by the government (inoffially) to open a Chinese Consulate in Biratnagar and a highway linking Tibet and Nepal along the Kosi river from Kimathanka pass could be considered.
India suspects that Pakistan, which shares neither a border nor any substantive trade with the Himalayan Kingdom, is only interested in fomenting trouble on the open border between India and Nepal. Anti-India activities of Pakistans embassy in Kathmandu have long been a major source of concern to New Delhi.
The report comes barely a week after the second round of intense negotiations between Nepal and India to renew the seven-year-old Transit Treaty, last signed on January 5, 1999, failed. But India extended that treaty allowing 15 Indian transit routes for land locked Nepal only for another three months.
So, to ensure business-as-usual for Nepal, the two South Asian neighbors need to start talking soon to sort out the sensitive issues at the higher level and renew that treaty before coming April 5. With the Nepal-India relations going on to freezing degrees, India is now expected to use the transit leverage over Nepal to get things done. But that might be difficult given practical and security considerations along the 1900km long Nepal-India border