Kathmandu, June 30

The Eminent Persons Group on Nepal-India Relations has agreed on a joint report to be submitted to the two governments.

The ninth and final meeting of the group, which concluded in Kathmandu today, finalised the report.

“The two-day meeting successfully prepared the single joint report which would be submitted to the two prime ministers on and early date,” stated Yadav Khanal, secretary at the EPG secretariat in Kathmandu, in an e-mail.

The EPG has been mandated to come up with a comprehensive report on anything that needs to be updated, adjusted or amended in all exiting bilateral treaties, agreements, understandings, including the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950. The group, however, has not made public the details of the joint report, and said the details would be made public by the two governments.

BhekhBahadurThapa, who coordinates the EPG from the Nepali side, said the meeting concluded successfully in a harmonious and positive environment, and the group agreed on a joint report within the stipulated timeframe.

“We will now jointly submit the report to the two prime ministers at a convenient date, and the details will be made public by the two governments,” he said.

The body has four members each from Nepal and India. Nepali EPG members include former foreign minister Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, former chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority Surya Nath Upadhyay, former law minister Nilamber Acharya and leader of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leader Rajan Bhattarai.

The Indian EPG members are senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bhagat Singh Koshyari, former vice-chancellor of Sikkim University Mahendra Lama, former Indian ambassador to Nepal Jayant Prasad and Vivekananda International Foundation Senior Fellow BC Upreti.