KATHMANDU, Jun 10: A joint working group will deal with the issue of cross-border occupation between Nepal and India, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told Parliament on Wednesday as he sought to clarify Prime Minister Balendra Shah Balen's comments on the topic.
The next meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Working Group (JWG) on Border Management will be held in India in August, Khanal said as the opposition lawmakers obstructed the meetings of the House of Representatives several times demanding clarification from PM Shah regarding the matter.
The prime minister's statement last month in Parliament that Nepal also encroached Indian territories at different places and that the Himalayan nation has involved China and the UK to resolve the issue had sparked a major controversy.
New Delhi categorically rejected any role for third parties to resolve the row.
Khanal further clarified that technical teams have shown that there are places where land being occupied and used by the Nepalese side may actually lie in the Indian territory whereas land being occupied and used by the Indian side may actually lie in the Nepalese territory.
"The prime minister's statement was related to these technical facts. He was mentioning about cross-border occupation when he spoke about border related issues," he added.
