India willing to amend Indo-Nepal Treaty: PM

NEW DELHI, May 31: India is willing to discuss an amendment to the 1950 Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty if Kathmandu is still interested in do...

NEW DELHI, May 31: India is willing to discuss an amendment to the 1950 Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty if Kathmandu is still interested in doing so, Prime Minister I K Gujral has said.

Speaking to a group of Nepali journalists here on Friday, prior to his visit to Nepal beginning on June 5, Gujral said, “India would be willing to entertain any amendment to the Indo-Nepal Treaty, but the initiative for this must come from Nepal.”

Former Nepalese prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had told the Indian government during his visit here late in 1995 that Kathmandu wanted to revise the treaty because it had outlived its utility. He had then said that Kathmandu should, for example, have the independent right to buy arms “from whoever it chooses”.

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The Indian government then had not reacted too well to the suggestion, since the Treaty gave a special status to India’s relationship with Nepal and New Delhi was wary about increasing Chinese influence on Kathmandu.

But Gujral’s flexible attitude towards amending the document is bound to create a “positive atmosphere” not only for the visit, foreign policy analysts said, but also for the future of bilateral relations. Gujral’s three-day visit to Nepal will focus on strengthening the relationship, “since there are no real contentious issues between the two countries today,” the analysts pointed out.

The visit, they said, is a manifestation of the doctrine of good neighbourliness with India’s smaller neighbours. Gujral, however, ruled out mediation in the problem of Bhutanese refugees.