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After 6 years, India and Nepal resume boundary talks; working group to meet on July 27-29

Boundary Working Group is the highest-level bilateral mechanism for border fieldwork between India and Nepal. The BWG handles the construction, restoration, and repair of boundary pillars and clearing no-man's land read more Nepal and India are all set to resume boundary talks on July 27–29 in New Delhi after a six-year pause, with the seventh Boundary Working Group (BWG) meeting, the highest-level bilateral mechanism for border fieldwork, set to address the resumption of technical tasks, reported Kathmandu Post, citing sources. 'The meeting has been fixed,' said Lok Bahadur Chettri, spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 'It's a regular meeting which was halted due to Covid pandemic.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The BWG handles the construction, restoration, and repair of boundary pillars and clearing no-man's land, excluding disputed areas like Susta and Kalapani. Back in 2014, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Nepal visit, both nations had agreed to establish the BWG. It was also decided that Susta and Kalapani disputes will be addressed by foreign secretaries with BWG support. Prakash Joshi, director general of Nepal's Department of Survey, will lead the Nepali delegation, joined by representatives from foreign, home, defence, law, and land management ministries, plus experts and Armed Police Force members. Last BWG meeting The previous BWG meeting took place in Dehradun, India, in August 2019. It aimed to complete border tasks by 2022, but the Covid pandemic and a subsequent Nepal-India boundary dispute stalled progress. The dispute intensified in 2019–20 after India's map included Kalapani, prompting Nepal to push for BWG resumption in every high-level meeting since the pandemic. India, citing Covid, delayed BWG meetings but later assigned border tasks to security agencies. Nepal's Armed Police Force and India's Sashastra Seema Bal manage joint patrolling, intelligence, and local meetings to protect boundary pillars. A Nepali official attending the upcoming meeting told the Post it will pick up from 2019, reviewing progress and resuming fieldwork, inspections, pillar maintenance, and new pillar installations per BWG terms. It will also conduct a cross-border inventory to identify properties held by citizens in each other's territory, using GPS to monitor and establish boundaries and pillars. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The BWG is supported by the Survey Officials' Committee and Joint Field Survey Teams for technical input.