KATHMANDU: The three-day high-level meeting between the border officials of Nepal-India concluded today with a decision to make cross-border crime control more effective.
The three-day meeting decided to take effective steps to make the border security more effective with the joint efforts of the two countries.
In the meeting that started last Saturday, Inspector General of Armed Police Raju Aryal and Director General of India's Sashatra Seema Bal (SSB) Amrit Mohan Prasad jointly signed the agreement after discussing on 11 items on the agenda.
The joint memorandum of understanding includes cooperation on cross-border crime control and border security. Spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Joint Secretary Rishiram Tiwari, who participated in the meeting, shared that the meeting concluded to take more effective measures on border crime control, information exchange, revenue leakage control, drug smuggling and control of illegal entry of third country citizens.
Works will also be done to make border security more organized, decriminalizing the no-mans-land area, and taking joint initiatives to control human trafficking and gold smuggling.
Inspector General of Armed Forces Aryal was joined by senior security officers of Ministry of Home Affairs, Nepal Police, Investigation Department, Survey Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SSB Director General Prasad led a six-member team from India.
In the meeting, the Indian side was of the view that mutual cooperation is necessary due to the problem of identification of citizens of third countries and to control gold smuggling into India from third countries through Nepal.
The meeting is held every year alternately in Nepal and India. The new proposal to hold meetings alternately every six months has also been passed. Other regular meetings of border security officers and district-level officials shall continue.
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