5 Nepal's Relations with India, China and the USA

5.1 India — the "special relationship"Foundations: the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship (open border, reciprocal residence- property rights, security consultation obligations — and the revision debate that shadows everything); geography (land borders on three sides, rivers flowing south, the Terai's economic spine); economy (India as the largest trade partner and the essential transit route; petroleum and electricity trade — Nepal exporting hydropower to India in the monsoon surplus and importing in winter); culture (open border, kinship, marriage, religion — and the consequent sensitivities); Gurkha recruitment legacy. Cooperation record: peace process support, post-earthquake relief (2015), infrastructure (cross-border petroleum pipeline — Motihari–Amlekhgunj, a South Asian first; integrated check posts; transmission lines; Jaynagar–Bardibas railway's first section). Frictions' catalogue: the 1950 treaty's perceived inequality; border disputes (Kalapani/Lipulekh — the 2020 map episode; Susta; the border working group's slow pace); the 2015–16 obstruction's scar; trade deficit and non-tariff frictions; periodic map/territory politics. The through-line: interdependence with asymmetry — friendship by necessity, friction by proximity.5.2 China — the northern neighbourFrom the 1955 establishment of relations and the 1960 Treaty of Peace and Friendship (respect for sovereignty, non-interference, equality — the pure Panchasheel text) to today's comprehensive partnership: the boundary settlement (1961 treaty; joint pillars; peaceful, largely settled frontier — note the humla/Tinkar-type local matters), the Araniko highway era, and the modern wave — post-2015 investment…