New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Saturday that there was a common consensus that the boundary issues between India and Nepal needed to be addressed responsibly via conversation and that politicisation should be avoided.

He made the remarks during a press conference following wide range of talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was visiting India.

Deuba said the boundary issue was discussed and encouraged Modi to settle it through the establishment of a bilateral mechanism in a statement to the media., the topic was briefly discussed, Shringla said. "The subject was briefly discussed." The general consensus was that both sides needed to approach this responsibly through debate and communication in the spirit of our close and cordial relations, and that politicisation of such topics should be avoided," he stated.  Shringla was responding to a query about the topic."I believe there was a feeling that we should handle it through discourse and discussion," he added.

After Nepal produced a new political map in 2020, showing the three Indian regions of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani, and Lipulekh as part of Nepal, ties between India and Nepal were severely strained. India, for its part, slammed the move as a "unilateral step" and warned Kathmandu that such "artificial enlargements" of territorial claims would not be tolerated.

In May 2020, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh opened an 80-kilometre-long strategically important route connecting the Lipulekh pass and Dharchula in Uttarakhand.

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