India: New road doesn’t illegally enter into Nepal

NEW DELHI — India says a newly inaugurated road does not illegally cross into neighboring Nepal, denying the tiny Himalayan country’s claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government is ignoring a long-standing dispute over a border with China and Tibet.

50-mile Lipu Lekh road is the shortest route from New Delhi to Kailash-Mansarovar, a revered Hindu pilgrimage site in the Tibetan plateau.

The road cuts through the Lipu Lekh Himalayan pass, considered one of the shortest and most feasible trade routes between India and China. Nepal has fiercely contested India’s claim on the territory, which it has included in boundary maps since the early 19th century, because of its potential as an economic corridor.

Nepal views the alleged incursions as bullying.