In a very surprising political move, China-the arch rival of India has invited Bhutan to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and share its “development dividends”.

Beijing hinted Bhutan this Tuesday, a day after a senior Chinese minister visited Thimpu and held talks with the Bhutanese leadership on wide-ranging issues, including the disputed border.

Observers in Nepal claim that Bhutan prefers now to come out of the firm clutches of the Indian establishment, the regional Goliath, which has treated the tiny Himalayan Kingdom as a “protectorate” since the ugly days of Pundit Nehru-the first Prime Minister of the Republic of India born 1947.

A clever Nehru, a Kashmiri Brahmin, immediately after independence, pounced upon first on Bhutan and a year later on Nepal and managed under coercion to make them to sign the humiliating treaties, named as the treaty of peace and friendship, with the new Indian republic in the year 1949 and 1950 respectively.

Since then the two countries, Bhutan and Nepal, neither have had peace nor establish intimate friendship with the other contracting partner of the said treaty that is the new Indian republic.

Both these two smaller countries have braved several economic blockades imposed by the country that follows the Nehru doctrine.

India since the days of Pundit of Nehru has been grilling Bhutan and Nepal and has twisted the arms of these two countries as and when Delhi considers the right and opportune moment and has been taking sadistic pleasure from the pains of Bhutan and Nepal.

However, Nepal somehow or the other managed to keep itself independent and sovereign from the dictates of the dirty Indian establishment, but Bhutan failed only because the Bhutanese youths preferred to obey to the dictates of the Indian regime and thus the Bhutanese King, born in Nepal, too became helpless. So sad.

Now when Bhutan heard that Nepal and China are coming closer then naturally Bhutan too wished to toe the Nepali line and thus in this very spirit perhaps the Shangri-La kingdom greeted a very high level Chinese government functionary to Thimpu with the aim to enhance their bilateral ties and establish diplomatic relations.

China and Bhutan are yet to establish diplomatic relations. Bhutan fears of the Indian wrath if and when it wished to expand ties with countries other than India.

For Bhutan, India is the World.

But when enough is enough, Bhutan preferred and collected the needed courage to invite China’s vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou, accompanied by the country’s points-person for Bhutan Luo Zhaohui (the Chinese Ambassador in Delhi), discussed with the Bhutanese leadership the gamut of the bilateral dispute, which included the situation along the China-Bhutan-India border in Doklam.

Mr. Kong met Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, besides foreign minister Damcho Dorji claim Chinese news sources.

Bhutan was at the center stage of the world when a dangerous Sino-India military standoff in Doklam (Donglang in Chinese), an area under Chinese control but claimed by Thimpu, near the Sikkim border occurred.

This was the first high-level visit by a Chinese politician to Bhutan since the Doklam standoff was resolved at the end of last August 2017.

The manner the visiting Chinese dignitary has been greeted by Bhutan’s highest authorities hints that Bhutan too wants to come out from the firm ruthless grip of the Indian establishment and take a long breathe of fresh air by expanding its ties with the developed countries of the world.

In fact Bhutan prefers now not to be taken as an Indian protectorate. Insulting that it is.

Reports say that the two sides exchanged views on China-Bhutan ties, and also the boundary question , and reached many agreements,” Geng Shuang, ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) spokesperson said at a ministry briefing made this Tuesday.

Kong met Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay besides foreign minister Damcho Dorji.

Bhutan does not have diplomatic ties with China and is the only country in India’s neighborhood that hasn’t joined the BRI, President Xi Jinping’s multi-billion-dollar connectivity project that India has refused to endorse on multiple international forums because of sovereignty issues linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. It refused to attend the only major BRI forum organized in Beijing in May 2017.

Other than India, Bhutan is the only country with which China currently has a land border dispute.

(Nepal too has some land dispute with China in the Dolakha district along the Nepal-China Border. The international pillars have been pushed deep inside the Nepali territory, it is widely believed).

The landlocked Himalayan kingdom, Bhutan, has been bound by treaty since 1949 to seek India’s guidance on foreign policy, with the treaty renewed in 2007.

Bhutan also has diplomatic relations with Japan, but not with any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, including China, its only other immediate neighbor. It is also the only neighbor that China has unfortunately no formal relations with.

Kong told the Bhutanese leadership that China will continue to work towards resolving the border questions with Bhutan.

As the events have unfolded, Bhutan too prefers to be a part of the much publicized but disliked by India, the Belt and Road Initiative, BRI. Bhutan must have expressed its interest(s) in having a corridor much similar to what China has with Pakistan at the moment-the CPEC and with Nepal also-the NCEC.

The Pakistani Cricketer turned political personality, Imran Khan who is also the Chairman of Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has said that launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC, has injected a new energy into Pakistan’s national development.

Pakistan is going for polls today.

“In the future, the Corridor will receive wide support from all sections of his country’s society and that the construction of the Corridor continues to advance”, he said this while talking to a Chinese language magazine The Guanming Daily published this Monday.

However, the fresh China-Bhutan meet has not been taken in good taste by says that, “The timing of Chinese vice foreign minister’s surprise visit to Thimphu underscores Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in India’s backyard. Having quietly seized control of much of Doklam Plateau, which Bhutan regards as its own integral part, China is now mounting pressure on Bhutan to allow it to open an embassy in Thimphu. This kind of pressure is extraordinary. If Bhutan lets China open an embassy, it will represent a watershed moment in New Delhi-Thimphu relations.

”

Mr. Chellany generally speaks the official version of the Indian government. Bhutan’s courage must be admired. But chances of imposition of another blockade of the sort of 2013 remains high though.

Photo Courtesy from the internet: Thanks. 

by NP Upadhyaya.