NEW DELHI: Nepal has clarified that it is not seeking third-party mediation in its long-running Kalapani Lipulekh Limpiyadhura border dispute with India, and is instead focused on strengthening its territorial claims through access to historical records.
Addressing a press conference at the Nepal Embassy in New Delhi on Sunday, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal said Kathmandu remains committed to resolving the dispute through existing bilateral mechanisms with India and is not seeking external mediation.
"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," Khanal said.
His remarks come days after Prime Minister Balendra Shah told Nepal’s Parliament that Kathmandu was in contact with both the United Kingdom and China regarding the disputed tri junction area.
The statement triggered political debate in Nepal and drew a response from the External Affairs Ministry, which reiterated that border issues between India and Nepal should be addressed through established bilateral channels and leave no scope for third-party intervention.
Khanal argued that Britain’s colonial era role in drawing regional boundaries justified Nepal’s efforts to access historical records.
"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," Shah had earlier told Parliament.
The border issue resurfaced in April after India announced the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra for 2026 through the Lipulekh Pass, a route claimed by Nepal as part of its sovereign territory.
The pilgrimage, organised in coordination with China, prompted Kathmandu to lodge formal diplomatic protests with both New Delhi and Beijing.
"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 belongs to us. That's been our historical claim," Khanal said.
Seeking to distinguish the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party from Nepal’s traditional political establishment, Khanal said the Shah government represents a generational shift in Nepal’s politics and intends to move bilateral relations beyond entrenched geopolitical narratives.
"We represent a completely new political reality in Nepal," Khanal said. "Our rise is driven by an extraordinary and historic mandate centred on uncompromising good governance, strict meritocracy and direct accountability. Because we are a new generation of leadership, we are absolutely unencumbered by the past."
The Rastriya Swatantra Party emerged as Nepal’s dominant political force following the May elections, which came after a youth led political movement that toppled the government of former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli amid widespread opposition to restrictions on Nepal’s digital ecosystem in 2025.
Khanal argued that the new leadership does not view India through what he described as the "distorted, hyper sensitive lens" of past geopolitical rivalries.
"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," he said. "We want to look at India with clear eyes and a single transparent agenda of Nepal’s economic transformation."
Khanal’s comments came a day after his talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, during which both sides announced the operationalisation of peer to peer digital payments under an agreement between Nepal Clearing House Limited and the National Payments Corporation of India.
The Nepalese minister described the initiative as a significant step towards deeper financial and digital integration between the two neighbours and said his visit had helped revive high level political engagement.
He confirmed that Nepal’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle is expected to visit India soon, while indicating that Prime Minister Shah remains focused on domestic governance priorities and therefore no timeline has been fixed for his visit to New Delhi.
Khanal also addressed the fate of the long pending report of the Eminent Persons Group, a bilateral panel established over a decade ago to recommend ways of strengthening Nepal India relations.
The report, which has never been formally submitted, remains politically sensitive in both countries.
"The EPG was commissioned by the agreement of two Prime Ministers, and the report can only be submitted to two Prime Ministers. So I have no authority to make that public, accept, or do anything," Khanal said.
Despite persistent disagreements over the border issue, Khanal expressed confidence that the dispute could be resolved through dialogue.
"No problem is too large and complex when both sides engage with an open heart, a rational mind and mutual respect," he said, stressing Kathmandu’s commitment to resolving differences through bilateral diplomacy.