New Delhi: India on Sunday (May 3) rejected Nepal’s territorial claims over the Lipulekh pass as “untenable” after Kathmandu issued a pointed statement opposing the annual Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through what it calls Nepali sovereign territory.This is first verbal confrontation between the two neighbours over the boundary issue after Balen Shah was sworn in as the prime minister in Kathmandu a month ago, after an overwhelming electoral victory.Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated it had taken note of media questions about the pilgrimage “said to be conducted between India and China through Lipulekh, which is Nepali territory.” It reiterated that the government’s position on the area is “fully clear and firm.”“Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani, situated east of the Mahakali River, have been integral parts of Nepal’s territory since the Sugauli Treaty of 1816,” the Nepali language statement said.Nepal said it had conveyed its concerns to both India and China through diplomatic channels and had “continuously urged” India not to carry out “any activities such as road construction or expansion, border trade and pilgrimage” in the area. It also said it had officially informed China that the Lipulekh area is Nepali territory.Within a couple of hours, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal responded that India’s position “has been consistent and clear” and that the Lipulekh Pass “has been a long standing route for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra since 1954.” The spokesperson added that the yatra through this route “has been going on for decades” and “is not a new development.”On Nepal’s territorial claims, the spokesperson said India “has consistently maintained that such claims are neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence.” The spokesperson stated that “such unilateral artificial enlargement of territorial claims is untenable.”At the same time, India stated that it remained “open to a constructive interaction with Nepal on all issues in the bilateral relationship, including on resolving agreed outstanding boundary issues through dialogue and diplomacy.”The exchange was triggered by India’s announcement on May 1 that the 2026 Kailash Mansarovar Yatra would run from June to August, with 10 batches of 50 pilgrims each travelling through the Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand and another 10 batches through the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim. The Chinese Embassy in New Delhi welcomed the resumption of the pilgrimage, saying China would facilitate 1,000 Indian pilgrims this year.The protest by the new government in Nepal response is not surprising as it both Shah and the Rastriya Swatantra Party had staked out nationalist positions on relations with India, including the Lipulekh issue, while in opposition.As Mayor of Kathmandu, he displayed a “Greater Nepal” map in his office in 2023 as a counter to India’s “Akhand Bharat” mural in its new parliament building.Last year, according to Nepali media, he refused to visit China over the Lipulekh dispute after India and China agreed to trade through the pass, and barred the Chinese from organising their New Year event in Thamel.When Oli left for the SCO summit in China in August 2025, Shah posted on social media urging him not to forget to remind Beijing that Lipulekh belongs to Nepal. “The agreement between India and China to resume trade via the Lipulekh pass is an encroachment on our sovereignty,” he wrote.In a party statement issued in August 2025 and signed by Shisir Khanal as head of RSP’s international relations department, the RSP condemned the India-China agreement on Lipulekh and said neither country could conduct trade through the pass without Nepal’s consent.However, Khanal, who later became the foreign minister, signalled a more measured approach after the RSP’s election victory.Asked by The Wire in early March whether the border issue could remain a source of friction with India, Khanal said, “Border issues exist between many neighbouring countries around the world. They are natural between neighbours. Our approach will be to resolve such issues through dialogue rather than turning them into political contentious issues.”The dispute over Lipulekh centres on competing interpretations of the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli, which established the Mahakali River as the western boundary of Nepal.Nepal argues the river originates at Limpiyadhura, which would place all territory east of it, including Kalapani and Lipulekh, within Nepal. India disputes this and says the river begins further east, near the Kalapani village, where multiple tributaries converge. It has also presented administrative and revenue records dating back to the 1830s to support its claims about it being a territory under british india.The territory did not become a live diplomatic controversy until 1996, after Nepal’s parliament ratified the Mahakali Treaty with India. A Joint Technical Boundary Committee had been meeting since 1981 but failed to resolve the issue. Both sides agreed at prime ministerial level in 2000 to complete field-work for demarcation of the outstanding boundary areas by 2002. That deadline was never met.The dispute escalated sharply in November 2019 after India published a new political map following the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories. The map showed Kalapani as part of India’s Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand. Nepal protested immediately.In May 2020, after India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a road link to the Lipulekh pass, the Oli government issued a revised political map incorporating Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura, adding 335 square kilometres to Nepal’s claimed territory. India had described it as an “unjustified cartographic assertion” which will “not be accepted”.Nepal’s parliament unanimously passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the new map in June 2020. India again rejected the map, calling it an “artificial enlargement” of territorial claims.Oli was facing a deepening power struggle within the ruling Nepal Communist Party at the time, with his then co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other senior leaders pushing to unseat him. The map amendment rallied cross-party nationalist support behind his government at a moment when his domestic position was under severe pressure.Due to the military standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh, all major bilateral mechanisms were frozen, including the Mansarovar pilgrimage and border trade through Lipulekh, until the matter was deemed resolved in October 2024.After relations between India and China began to normalise, the two countries agreed in August 2025 to reopen three traditional border trading routes, including through Lipulekh, during the 24th round of the Special Representatives’ dialogue between India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.Nepal sent separate diplomatic notes to both India and China objecting to the agreement, recalling its earlier protests from 2015.India’s MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal responded on Aug 2025 that border trade through Lipulekh “commenced in 1954 and has been going on for decades.” The language was nearly identical to the MEA statement issued on Sunday in response to Nepal’s objections over the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.