The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is nestled between two Asian giants, China and India. But that unique geographical position also comes with a price. Why Bhutan wants a border deal with China?
Bhutan is one of the two countries with which China is yet to resolve its land border dispute. The other country is India, which has a long-running disagreement over its Himalayan frontier with China.
China’s global rise is putting pressure on Bhutan to reach a deal with Beijing, but any possible breakthrough will need the approval of its ally India.
Thimphu and Delhi share a close relationship and India has been offering hundreds of millions of dollars of economic and military aid to Thimphu.
Bhutan and China have disputes over territory in the north and in the west in the Himalayas.
Among all the contentious places, the key issue is a strategic plateau called Doklam – situated close to the tri-junction between India, Bhutan, and China. Bhutan and China claim the region and India supports Thimphu’s position.
India has its own reasons to back Thimphu. Experts say the Doklam plateau is of great security importance to India as any dominance of the region by the Chinese could pose a threat to Siliguri Corridor, known as the Chicken’s Neck, a 22km (14-mile) stretch that connects the Indian mainland with its north-eastern states.
A recent interview given by the Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering to a Belgian newspaper La Libre has only reminded the country about its limitations. Why Bhutan wants a border deal with China?
“It is not up to Bhutan alone to solve the problem. We are three. There is no big or small country, there are three equal countries, each counting for a third. We are ready. As soon as the other two parties are also ready, we can discuss,” Mr Tshering was quoted as saying.
He also expressed hope that Bhutan and China will be able to demarcate some of its boundaries in a meeting or two. The two countries have been holding border negotiations since 1984. Mr Tshering also said that there was no Chinese intrusion of its territory.
The comments by Mr Tshering have triggered alarm bells in India, particularly in the media, with many commentators expressing concern over the possibility of any swap agreement with Bhutan and China involving the tri-junction. Some of them say Thimphu is not pressing hard enough over its claims on Doklam.
“India is concerned that China is pressuring Bhutan to settle the boundary to harass New Delhi,” said P Stobdan, a former senior Indian diplomat and an expert on Himalayan affairs.
“Clearly, the Bhutanese are intending to speed up the process of resolving their differences and there have been some changes in the Bhutanese stance lately with regards to China’s role in settling the dispute,” Mr Stobdan said.
Following the furore in the Indian media, Mr Tshering earlier this month clarified his comments. “I have said nothing new and there is no change in [Bhutan’s] position,” the prime minister told The Bhutanese weekly.
While many Bhutanese were surprised by the reaction to Mr Tshering’s comments in the Indian media, the view from China is that Thimphu will struggle to reach a deal without Delhi’s backing.
“India is the hurdle here. If China and Bhutan also resolve the border issue, only India will be left. I don’t think India will let this happen,” Liu Zongyi, a senior fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the sources.
China and Bhutan were close to reaching a final agreement around 1996, but failed due to India’s intervention, he said. The Bhutan-China border issues are also linked to the decades-old India-China tensions over the border.
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