Foreign Secretary in Thimphu a week after China, Bhutan resolve to fast-track border talks

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, January 18

Days after China and Bhutan reached a “positive consensus” to implement three-step roadmap to settle their border dispute, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kawtra reached Thimphu on Wednesday on athree-day visit to hold talks with his counterpart Pema Choden as well as call on the country’s leadership.

Welcomed Foreign Secretary @AmbVMKwatra on his arrival at Paro, for an official visit to Bhutan from 18-20 January. He will hold bilateral consultations with Foreign Secretary of Bhutan Aum Pema Choden and co-chair the 4th India-Bhutan Development Cooperation Talks. pic.twitter.com/y3RijsvqHL

— India in Bhutan (@Indiainbhutan) January 18, 2023

Kwatra will also co-chair the 4th India-Bhutan Development Cooperation Talks. India is Bhutan’s largest benefactor and had earmarked $ 282 million for its development during 2022-23.

“The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between India and Bhutan, and will provide an opportunity to the two sides to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral ties,” said a MEA statement.

“During the visit, Foreign Secretary Kwatra will call on the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and also meet his counterpart Foreign Secretary Pema Choden to discuss issues of mutual interest,” said the Bhutanese Foreign Office.

Kwatra will be in Bhutan against the backdrop of the 11th Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on China-Bhutan Boundary Issues in China’s Kunming from January 10 to 13. While India’s border talks with China are stalled, Bhutan has held 24 rounds of boundary talks with China so far. Of China’s 14 land neighbours – the largest in the world – it has resolved boundary disputes with 12. India and Bhutan are the two countries with whom China is yet to finalise the border agreements.

The China-Bhutan joint statement said, “The two sides agreed to simultaneously push forward the implementation of all steps of the Three-Step Roadmap.”

India had intervened in a border dispute between China and Bhutan at Doklam in 2017. It led to a 73-day standoff between the armies of two countries. However, today, China has not only built the road that India had disputed but it has also raised a garrison uncomfortably close to the Jampari Ridge.

Kwatra had last met his Bhutanese counterpart Choden in August last year to set the stage for a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck next month. The King had also called on National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and met Kwatra.

China has been piling pressure on Bhutan by making additional claims. In 2020, it had laid stake to Bhutan’s Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary by opposing funding for a project at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council. Bhutan had lodged a demarche to the Chinese Embassy in India over the issue because the two sides do not have reciprocal diplomatic missions. China is also reportedly building villages located along borders with India, Bhutan and Nepal.