India and Nepal explore strategic bilateral ties, global role at RIS seminar
An international seminar titled "Reimagining India-Nepal Relations in an Emerging Global Order" was held in New Delhi, organised by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).
Nepal's Finance Minister and a senior Indian Ministry of External Affairs official discussed deepening bilateral cooperation in investment, energy, and connectivity.
The seminar took place alongside India's ongoing humanitarian relief effort for Nepal following severe flash floods, with an additional consignment of medicines, forensic supplies, tents, hygiene kits, and sleeping bags dispatched.
Discussions also touched on how India and Nepal could jointly position themselves within evolving regional and global frameworks.
The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950
This treaty is the foundational instrument of the India-Nepal bilateral relationship, granting citizens of each country reciprocal rights to live, work, own property, and travel freely in the other, without visas — an arrangement almost unique among India's neighbours. It also contains security-consultation provisions. The treaty has periodically drawn calls from Nepali political quarters for revision to reflect "changed realities," making it a recurring point of friction and a frequent current-affairs hook.
Key Details
- Signed: 1950, between independent India and the Kingdom of Nepal.
- Grants: open border, free movement, and national-treatment-like rights (residence, property, employment) to each other's citizens.
- Institutional forums built on it: India-Nepal Joint Commission, Eminent Persons Group (constituted 2016) which reviewed and recommended updates to the treaty.
The RIS seminar's call to "reimagine" India-Nepal ties in a changing global order echoes the long-running debate about updating the 1950 framework while keeping the open border and people-to-people ties intact.
Cross-border river cooperation: Kosi, Gandak, and the Mahakali/Pancheshwar framework
India and Nepal, sharing several trans-boundary rivers (Kosi, Gandak, Mahakali), have separate treaties governing irrigation, flood control, and hydropower. The Mahakali Treaty (1996) provides for the integrated Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project (targeted around 1,200-1,800 MW capacity plus irrigation and flood-moderation benefits), but implementation has been delayed for decades due to detailed-project-report and cost-sharing disagreements. Flood management is a recurring theme because Nepal's Himalayan rivers cause seasonal flooding in Bihar and eastern UP, making joint river governance a live bilateral issue.
Key Details
- Kosi Agreement: 1954 (revised 1966) — flood control/irrigation barrage in Nepal, embankments extending into Bihar.
- Gandak Agreement: 1959 — irrigation and hydropower barrage on the Gandak river.
- Mahakali Treaty: 1996 — integrated development of the Mahakali/Sharda river including the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project.
- Pancheshwar project remains largely undeveloped despite the treaty being signed nearly three decades ago.
The catastrophic floods referenced in the seminar backdrop are a direct consequence of the same river systems these treaties govern, reinforcing why river-water and flood-management cooperation is central to bilateral investment and connectivity talk.
India's neighbourhood-first policy and regional groupings (BIMSTEC, BBIN, SAARC)
With SAARC largely dormant due to India-Pakistan tensions, India has increasingly routed South Asian cooperation through BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, formed 1997) and the BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) sub-regional grouping for connectivity and energy trade, both of which include Nepal. These groupings reflect India's "Neighbourhood First" policy, prioritising connectivity, energy trade, and disaster response with immediate neighbours.
Key Details
- BIMSTEC: established 6 June 1997; seven members (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand); headquartered in Dhaka.
- BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement: signed 2015, for seamless cross-border movement of passenger and cargo vehicles (Bhutan has not ratified it).
- India is Nepal's largest trading partner and a key source of petroleum supply via cross-border pipelines (e.g., Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline, commissioned 2019).
The seminar's framing of India and Nepal's "global role" fits India's broader strategy of using regional platforms like BIMSTEC to deepen connectivity and energy cooperation with Kathmandu.
- India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship: signed 1950.
- Mahakali Treaty (covering the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project): signed 1996.
- BIMSTEC: formed 6 June 1997; 7 member states; headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
- India-Nepal border: open border with free movement under the 1950 treaty.
- Recent flash floods in Nepal prompted Indian relief consignments including medicines, tents, and hygiene kits, alongside the RIS seminar in New Delhi.