Spread the love

Kathmandu, Dec 11: Work has begun to restart talks with the UK government to address long-pending demands of former British Gurkhas. Ministerial-level negotiations, stalled since March 27, 2024, are now set for next week.

Acting Nepali envoy Bipin Duwadi said Nepal, the UK and Gurkha representatives will sit for a tripartite meeting on December 16 at the UK Ministry of Defense from 2:30 pm to 3:15 pm. UK Veterans Minister Louie Sander Jones will lead the British side, and Duwadi will lead for Nepal. Several Gurkha representatives will also join.

Talks are moving forward after both Nepal and former Gurkhas agreed to focus on an “affordable pension” model. The UK has long argued that equal pensions would require about 1.5 billion pounds, which it says it cannot provide.

Ahead of the meeting, the Group of Ten, a coalition of Gurkha organizations, drafted the agenda. Key points include a one-time payment equal to 15 years of pension, allowing post-1997 retirees to shift from the Armed Forces Pension Scheme to the Gurkha Pension Scheme, a one-off package for those made redundant, state pension access for those who served more than ten years, preserved pension for those who served at least five years since 1975, and preserved pension for the 121 Gurkhas sent home after the Heathrow incident. There are also welfare related demands. There are an estimated 16,000 former Gurkhas and widows.

Duwadi said he aims to keep bilateral ties steady while protecting the dignity of both states and the Gurkhas. He has held several rounds of talks with G10 representatives and met UK defense officials and MPs including Alex Baker, who chairs the UK parliamentary group on Nepal.

Gurkha campaign leader Krishna Bahadur Rai said the push for equal pensions has yielded little for decades, so they are now trying a different approach. Former Gurkhas have protested for about 35 years seeking equal pensions with British soldiers. After the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2016 that there was no discrimination in pension policy, campaigners have been left with only diplomatic and political routes.

Gurkha activists had previously staged a hunger strike outside the UK Prime Minister’s Office, ending it on the thirteenth day in August 2021 after the UK agreed to talks.

Over the past four years, there have been more than a dozen technical meetings and several ministerial rounds, but the issue remains unresolved. In 2018, both governments and Gurkha representatives agreed on a 13-point technical report, but it has yet to be fully implemented.