Nepal Border Row | Karan Singh bats for Foreign Secretary-level talks with Nepal

Expressing concern over the Indo-Nepal stand-off, the former Member Parliament Karan Singh on Monday laid stress upon holding Foreign Secretary-level talks to diffuse tension between the two nations.

In a statement, Singh said “As one who has been closely associated both personally and politically with Nepal over several decades, I must express my sense of deep regret and dismay that Prime Minister Oli has moved the country into what can only be described as an irreversible confrontational posture with India despite the profound social, cultural, religious, economic and political relations between the two countries that go back many centuries.”

   

He said whatever the impact the move may have on India, “I fear that the consequences for Nepal will not be favourable for the people of that beautiful country.”

“We should never have allowed the situation to deteriorate like this. Although the dispute in question is a long-standing one it was raised by Nepal in November last year. Surprisingly, we didn’t seem to take the matter seriously. We should have immediately initiated foreign secretary-level talk and then, if necessary, raised them to the level of Foreign Minister or even the Prime Ministers’ level,” Singh said.

“Prima-facie, this appears to have been a serious diplomatic lapse, the consequences of which were before us,” he said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

twelve + seven =