China shadow looms large as Indian foreign secretary meets new Bhutan PM

New Delhi: A day after a new government took office in Thimphu, India’s top diplomat, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, flew to the capital of Bhutan on Monday, amid concerns in New Delhi over the boundary negotiations between the neighbouring country and China.

Kwatra reached Thimphu just a day after Tshering Tobgay returned to the office of the prime minister.

Tobgay earlier held the office of the prime minister from 2013 to 2018. He returned as the prime minister on Sunday after he led his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to victory in the elections to the National Assembly of Bhutan held earlier this month.

The foreign secretary had a meeting with his counterpart Aum Pema Choden shortly after arriving in Thimphu. He is expected to call on Tobgay and his newly-appointed foreign minister D N Dhungyal. He will also call on Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.

Kwatra is expected to convey Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s greetings and compliments to Tobgay.

India is also keen to host the new prime minister of Bhutan.

Lotay Tshering was the prime minister from 2018 till November 1, 2023, when he resigned to pave the way for a caretaker government led by the country’s Chief Justice Chogyal Dago Rigdzin's party took over for the conduct of the elections. The former prime minister’s party Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa, however, got out of the contest in the primary round of the election itself.

Bhutan added new momentum to its boundary negotiations with China early 2023. An interview with Tshering published in a newspaper in Belgium had brought to public domain that the negotiations between Thimphu and Beijing to resolve the protracted Bhutan-China boundary dispute had reached an advanced stage.

The territorial row between Bhutan and China covers an area of about 764 sq. km – 269 sq. km in western and 495 sq. km in north-central Bhutan. China in 2020 also staked a claim on the Salting Wildlife Sanctuary in eastern Bhutan as part of its territory. Bhutan of course rejected the claim made by China. Thimphu and Beijing had earlier held 24 rounds of boundary negotiations till August 2016. The negotiations, however, had remained stalled after the stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA in the Doklam Plateau.

The Chinese and the Bhutanese officials, however, had a meeting in Kunming in the southern region of the communist country in April 2021. The meeting led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 14, 2021, for “a three-step roadmap” to resolve the Bhutan-China boundary dispute. They had another meeting in the capital city of the Yunnan province of China from January 10 to 13, 2023, when it was agreed to expedite the negotiation. The two sides in August held a meeting of an expert group and constituted a technical team for the demarcation of the boundary. The newly constituted technical team also had its first meeting around the same time.

New Delhi is concerned over the possibility of Thimphu giving up its claim over areas in the vicinity of Doklam in western Bhutan in exchange for Beijing narrowing or giving up its territorial claims in the north-central region of the tiny Himalayan Shangri-La.

Thimphu and Beijing held the 25th round of boundary talks in Beijing on October 23 and 24 and signed an agreement delineating the responsibilities and functions of the Joint Technical Team (JTT) on the delimitation and demarcation of the Bhutan-China boundary. Thimphu and Beijing have also revealed last month that the two sides were discussing establishing formal diplomatic relations.

Bhutan at present does not have any formal diplomatic relations with China or any of the four other permanent members of the United Nations.