Bhutan keeps mum as Doklam standoff ends

Bhutan on Monday kept mum even as India and China ended the more-than-two-month-long military face-off at Doklam Plateau, an area the Himalayan Kingdom claimed as its own.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bhutanese Government in Thimphu did not issue any statement even after New Delhi confirmed that both Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army had withdrawn the soldiers from the scene of the face-off at Doklam Plateau. 

The trouble started in Doklam Plateau on June 16, when Chinese PLA soldiers came to the area with heavy earth-moving machinery and started building a motorable road towards a camp of the Royal Bhutanese Army. 

Thimphu has always been claiming Doklam Plateau as an integral part of Bhutan. Beijing, however, has been contesting the claim of Thimphu. 

The PLA soldiers brushed aside protests by the personnel of the Royal Bhutan Army and moved ahead with the construction of the road. 

Indian Army soldiers posted in nearby Doka La post in Sikkim went to the scene on June 18 and stopped construction of the road by the Chinese PLA personnel. This resulted in the face-off which continued for weeks. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bhutanese Government on June 29 issued a press-release stating that Thimphu had conveyed it to Beijing that the construction of the road by the Chinese PLA personnel in the territory of Bhutan was “a direct violation of the agreements and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between our two countries.”

Thimphu also stated that it hoped that the status quo in the Doklam Plateau would be restored as before the Chinese PLA soldiers' arrival in the area to build the road. 

A day after the press-release was issued in Thimphu, New Delhi stated that Indian Army soldiers had gone to Doklam Plateau in close coordination with Royal Government of Bhutan to stop the Chinese PLA personnel from building the road.