Army chief Seth meets Nepal PM Shah, discusses defence ties amid border tensions
The Chief of the Army Staff called on Nepal's Prime Minister in Kathmandu, in what is being described as the first major official engagement between the two countries since Nepal's new government took charge.
The visit and discussions covered bilateral defence cooperation, including the traditional military-to-military relationship, amid continuing tensions over the disputed Kalapani-Lipulekh-Limpiyadhura tri-junction area.
The visit follows the long-standing custom under which the Indian and Nepali Army Chiefs confer honorary General ranks on each other's army, a practice that continues to anchor the institutional relationship even when political ties are strained.
Discussions are understood to have touched on defence procurement, training exchanges, and disaster-relief cooperation, alongside the unresolved territorial dispute.
The Kalapani-Lipulekh-Susta Boundary Dispute
This is a long-running territorial disagreement between India and Nepal involving roughly 372 sq km of Himalayan territory (Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, Kalapani) in the far northwest, plus a separate riverine dispute at Susta in the east.
Key Details
- The dispute traces to the Sugauli Treaty (1816), signed between the Kingdom of Nepal and the British East India Company after the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–16), which fixed the Kali (Mahakali) river as Nepal's western boundary with India — but did not clearly identify the river's source, leaving room for rival cartographic claims.
- Nepal argues that Limpiyadhura is the river's true source, placing Lipulekh and Kalapani inside Nepali territory; India's maps place the boundary along a different tributary/ridge line further east, keeping the disputed area under Indian administration (Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand).
- At Susta, the dispute arose because the Gandak river shifted course over time, leaving land that was originally on Nepal's side of the river now attached to the Indian bank.
- India published a new political map in November 2019 (after the reorganisation of Jammu & Kashmir) showing Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura within Indian territory, which Nepal formally protested; Nepal's Parliament subsequently amended its own map in 2020 to claim the same area.
The Army Chief's visit, coming amid the still-unresolved boundary question and a change of government in Kathmandu, is read as India using the military-diplomatic channel to keep engagement going even while the territorial dispute remains politically unsettled.
India-Nepal Defence and Security Relationship
India and Nepal share a uniquely close defence relationship rooted in geography, the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and decades of Gorkha recruitment into the Indian Army.
Key Details
- The Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1950) established an open border with visa-free movement of citizens, and included provisions for close cooperation on defence and foreign affairs, including Nepal's import of arms through India under agreed arrangements.
- The Tripartite Agreement (1947), signed by Britain, India and Nepal, divided the ten Gorkha regiments of the pre-independence Indian Army: six regiments stayed with independent India and four went to the British Army, formalising India's continued recruitment of Nepali Gorkha soldiers.
- As a mark of the special relationship, the Army Chiefs of India and Nepal traditionally confer honorary General rank on each other — a practice going back to 1950 — reinforcing military ties as a stabilising channel independent of political cycles.
- The Gorkha recruitment question has become contentious in recent years after India's Agnipath scheme (2022), which introduced short-service tenure enlistment; Nepal has paused fresh recruitment of its citizens into the Indian Army under Agnipath terms pending clarity on pension and long-term service issues.
Defence-tie discussions during the visit likely covered both the traditional cooperation architecture (training, honorary titles, disaster relief) and unresolved friction points like Agnipath-linked Gorkha recruitment, alongside the boundary question.
Border Management Mechanisms Between India and Nepal
Unlike India's heavily fenced borders with Pakistan or Bangladesh, the India-Nepal border is largely open, governed instead by bilateral institutional mechanisms rather than physical demarcation enforcement.
Key Details
- The India-Nepal Boundary Working Group has historically handled technical boundary demarcation and pillar maintenance along the largely agreed stretches of the over 1,850-km border.
- An Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on India-Nepal Relations was constituted in 2016 to review the full bilateral relationship, including the 1950 treaty, and submitted its report in 2018, though it has not been formally accepted or made public.
- Border-related friction is distinct from India's Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China or Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan; the India-Nepal boundary is an internationally recognised, largely settled international border, with Kalapani-Lipulekh-Susta being the primary unresolved segments.
Continuing "border tensions" referenced alongside the Army Chief's visit relate to this unresolved segment of an otherwise settled and open international border, distinguishing it conceptually from India's disputed/unsettled boundaries with China and Pakistan.
- Disputed Kalapani-Lipulekh-Limpiyadhura area: approximately 372 sq km, located in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand (Indian administration) / Darchula district, Sudurpaschim Province (Nepal's claim).
- Sugauli Treaty: signed 1816, following the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816).
- Tripartite Agreement on Gorkha regiments: signed at Kathmandu, 9 November 1947; split 10 Gorkha regiments — 6 to India, 4 to Britain.
- Treaty of Peace and Friendship: signed 1950, provides for open border and defence/foreign-policy cooperation.
- India's revised political map showing the disputed area as Indian territory: released November 2019; Nepal's constitutional amendment asserting its own map: 2020.
- Eminent Persons Group on India-Nepal Relations: constituted 2016, report submitted 2018 (not formally released).