Bhutan eyes China, but bond with India remains stronger

[IndoCarib]

Is Bhutan getting closer to China? Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao briefly met the Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley on the sidelines of the G20 Rio summit in June 2012. The 20th round of boundary talks between the two countries in August has also made the situation critically worth watching for India. India's Minister of State in External Affairs E Ahamed responded to a related query raised in Parliament in late August on the Sino-Bhutan relationship by stating that "the government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security."

Recent advances in the Sino-Bhutanese relationship have clearly been multi-faceted, touching on cooperation in political and economic matters, which link to India's regional strategic interests and its relationship with Bhutan, where India has traditionally been the "guiding" partner of Bhutan's foreign affairs.

Bhutan currently does not have diplomatic ties with China, but in the light of the growing political understanding between them, mainly their regular border talks and attempt at demarcating their common boundary, it may not be long before Sino-Bhutanese diplomatic ties are formally established.

Bhutan and China have some 470 kilometers of unresolved borders. China has shown keen interest in having a deal with Bhutan's northwestern areas in lieu of exchanging some specific central areas in the border region. Bhutan's northwestern region is close to the Chumbi Valley, and particularly to Tibet, and India's state of Sikkim. Any settlement between China and Bhutan on these border issues is bound to affect India's national interests.

Bhutan, India and China constitute a "tripartite" strategic triangle in the Eastern Himalayan region. The Chumbi Valley, located in the Yadong county of Tibet Autonomous Region, is close to the Siliguri corridor of India's northeast. India fears that China will have an edge once China's border negotiation with Bhutan succeeds.

There has been a surge of political interactions between China and Bhutan all these years. Before their 1984 border talks, Bhutan's border issue with China was part and parcel of the broader Sino-Indian border discourse. While many in India would presume that the China-Bhutan boundary talks are a cause of discomfort, India still conducts its relations with Bhutan on a separate and independent track.

From the Indian standpoint, Bhutan remains central to its broader Himalayan sub-regional politics.

The India-Bhutan relationship is based on the 1949 Treaty of Friendship, updated in February 2007 when King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk visited India.

The 2007 treaty is fundamentally different from its predecessor treaty, and puts Bhutan internationally on a different track. In 1949, the government agreed "to be guided by the advice of the Government of India in regard to its external relations."

The revised version states that "the Government of the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Government of the Republic of India shall cooperate closely with each other on issues relating to their national interests."

Even so, Article 2 of the 2007 treaty states that both countries need to "cooperate closely with each other on issues relating to their national interests."

Bhutan's holding bilateral border talks with China is linked to India's national interests in the Eastern Himalayan region. Hence, it is expected that Bhutan should consult India on the matter.

A few contours of the 2007 treaty are also central to the overall India-Bhutan relationship. It shows the solidarity that India shares with Bhutan, and the trust Bhutan still maintains with India. While it notes the "perpetual peace and friendship" between the two countries, it stresses mutual trust and understanding, and aims to maximize cooperation in various fields, including trade and economics, particularly in hydroelectric power sector.

Though Bhutan is completely sovereign and independent today, still it will be difficult for Bhutan to ignore India's influence, contribution and partnership both at bilateral and global levels.

Many Chinese people and businessmen have shown an interest in touring and investing in Bhutan. Bhutan has pursued the one-China policy, and has started seeing China as an economic opportunity.

Yet, the Indians are the predominant community in Bhutan currently. In terms of security and economic stakes, India still has a huge share and stake in Bhutan as a close partner and neighbor.

Though India would like to maintain the same vigor of cooperation and trust with Bhutan, much will depend upon how Bhutan decides to maintain and conduct its relationship with the outside world.

Bhutan must act smartly, and shouldn't really complicate its bearings either with China or India. China may genuinely be a matter of economic attraction, but Bhutan is still deeply ingrained politically with India. The institutional cooperation between Bhutan and India is still vital for Bhutan's future.

Bhutan eyes China, but bond with India remains stronger - Globaltimes.cn

 

[Tshering22]

I don't think we need to be alarmed about this.

Bhutan has even more serious problem with Chinese encroaching on their territory than we do. Only thing is if their government had the muscle we have, Commies won't dare to trespass their territory ever again.

Bhutan has the right to establish ties with anyone and if after all these years of terror strikes if we can have diplomatic ties with Pakistan, I don't see why Bhutan cannot have ties with Chinese despite commies gobbling Bhutanese land in cold war era.

 

[devils666]

I'm sure the Bhutanese are grateful for China reigning in on Tibet. Afterall, Tibet is historically an enemy of Bhutan.

Tibetan war against Bhutan:

Consolidation and defeat of Tibetan invasions, 1616–51
A 17th-century Italian map showing a large "Kingdom of Barantola or Boutan" bordering on Nepal and Tibet, as well as, surprisingly, Yunnan, Sichuan, and the Kingdom of Tanguts

In the seventeenth century, a theocratic government independent of Tibetan political influence was established, and premodern Bhutan emerged. The theocratic government was founded by an expatriate Drukpa monk, Ngawang Namgyal, who arrived in Bhutan in 1616 seeking freedom from the domination of the Gelugpa subsect led by the Dalai Lama (Ocean Lama) in Lhasa. After a series of victories over rival subsect leaders and Tibetan invaders, Ngawang Namgyal took the title shabdrung (At Whose Feet One Submits, or, in many Western sources, Dharma Raja), becoming the temporal and spiritual leader of Bhutan. Considered the first great historical figure of Bhutan, he united the leaders of powerful Bhutanese families in a land called Drukyul. He promulgated a code of law and built a network of impregnable dzong, a system that helped bring local lords under centralized control and strengthened the country against Tibetan invasions. Many dzong were extant in the late twentieth century.[12]

Circa 1627, during the first war with Tibet, Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral were the first recorded Europeans to visit Bhutan on their way to Tibet. They met with Ngawang Namgyal, presented him with firearms, gunpowder and a telescope, and offered him their services in the war against Tibet, but the shabdrung declined the offer.[12] After a stay of nearly eight months Cacella wrote a long letter from the Chagri Monastery reporting the travel. This is a rare report of the Shabdrung remaining.[13]

Tibetan armies invaded Bhutan around 1629, in 1631, and again in 1639, hoping to throttle Ngawang Namgyal's popularity before it spread too far. In 1634 Ngawang Namgyal defeated Karma Tenkyong's army in the Battle of Five Lamas. The invasions were thwarted, and the Drukpa subsect developed a strong presence in western and central Bhutan, leaving Ngawang Namgyal supreme. In recognition of the power he accrued, goodwill missions were sent to Bhutan from Cooch Behar in the Duars (present-day northeastern West Bengal), Nepal to the west, and Ladakh in western Tibet. The ruler of Ladakh even gave a number of villages in his kingdom to Ngawang Namgyal.

Bhutan's troubles were not over, however. In 1643, a joint Mongol-Tibetan force sought to destroy Nyingmapa refugees who had fled to Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal. The Mongols had seized control of religious and civil power in Tibet in the 1630s and established Gelugpa as the state religion. Bhutanese rivals of Ngawang Namgyal encouraged the Mongol intrusion, but the Mongol force was easily defeated in the humid lowlands of southern Bhutan. Another Tibetan invasion in 1647 also failed.[12]

During Ngawang Namgyal's rule, administration comprised a state monastic body with an elected head, the Je Khenpo (lord abbot), and a theocratic civil government headed by the Druk Desi (regent of Bhutan, also known as Deb Raja in Western sources). The Druk Desi was either a monk or a member of the laity—by the nineteenth century, usually the latter; he was elected for a three-year term, initially by a monastic council and later by the State Council (Lhengye Tshokdu). The State Council was a central administrative organ that included regional rulers, the shabdrung's chamberlains, and the Druk Desi. In time, the Druk Desi came under the political control of the State Council's most powerful faction of regional administrators. The Shabdrung was the head of state and the ultimate authority in religious and civil matters. The seat of government was at Thimphu, the site of a thirteenth-century dzong, in the spring, summer, and fall. The winter capital was at Punakha Dzong, a dzong established northeast of Thimphu in 1527. The kingdom was divided into three regions (east, central, and west), each with an appointed ponlop, or governor, holding a seat in a major dzong. Districts were headed by dzongpon, or district officers, who had their headquarters in lesser dzong. The ponlop were combination tax collectors, judges, military commanders, and procurement agents for the central government. Their major revenues came from the trade between Tibet and India and from land taxes.[12]

Ngawang Namgyal's regime was bound by a legal code called the Tsa Yig, which described the spiritual and civil regime and provided laws for government administration and for social and moral conduct. The duties and virtues inherent in the Buddhist dharma (religious law) played a large role in the new legal code, which remained in force until the 1960s.[12]

History of Bhutan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia