Nepal on Friday urged all its neighbours to respect its 2020 map, which includes three areas in dispute with India, in its response to the “2023 edition of the standard map of China” released by Beijing earlier this week.

“Nepal stands firm and clear on its political and administrative map unanimously approved by the parliament of Nepal in 2020. The Government of Nepal unequivocally believes that this map must be respected by our neighbours as well as the international community. Nepal remains committed to resolve the boundary matters through dialogues and diplomacy,” Nepal’s foreign ministry said in reply to media queries about China’s latest map.

Nepal is upset with China’s new map because it does not include Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura — areas of India that Kathmandu has included in its 2020 map — within Nepal’s borders. Essentially, China’s 2023 map has used Nepal’s pre-2020 map.

Nepal had issued its new map in May 2020, showing the three areas within its borders, after India inaugurated a road in Lipulekh to facilitate the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage.

Kathmandu, already smarting over India’s inclusion of Kalapani in its new map after the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, saw the road in Lipulekh as a further assault on its sovereignty and responded with the new map.