Year after Doklam standoff, China asks Bhutan to join BRI
BEIJING: China has invited Bhutan to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and share its “development dividend”, Beijing said on Tuesday, a day after a senior Chinese minister visited Thimphu and held talks with the Bhutanese leadership on wide-ranging issues, including the disputed border.
Bhutan was at the centre of last year’s 73-day Sino-India military standoff in Doklam (Donglang in Chinese), an area under Chinese control but claimed by Thimphu, near the Sikkim borBhutan, der. 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.
The official statement said China’s vice foreign minister, Kong Xuanyou accompanied by the country’s points-person for Luo Zhaohui, discussed the gamut of the bilateral boundary dispute, which includes the China-Bhutan border disagreement in Doklam.
Kong met Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, besides foreign minister Damcho Dorji.
“The two sides exchanged views on China-Bhutan ties, and also the boundary issue, and reached many agreements,” Geng Shuang, ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) spokesperson said at a ministry briefing on Tuesday.
INDIA HAS REFUSED TO ENDORSE BRI DUE TO SOVEREIGNTY ISSUES LINKED TO THE CHINAPAKISTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR
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 neighbourhood that hasn’t joined the BRI, President Xi Jinping’s multi-billion-dollar connectivity project.
India had refused to attend the only major BRI forum organised in Beijing in May 2017. Other than India, Bhutan is the only country with which China currently has a land border dispute. China and Bhutan have held 24 rounds of talks to resolve the bilateral boundary dispute. The 25th round of border talks slated for 2017 is said to have been cancelled because of the Doklam issue and is expected to be held this year.
China’s state media routinely blames India for Beijing’s lack of diplomatic ties with Thimphu.
Kong told the leadership in Thimphu that China will continue to work towards resolving the border question with Bhutan.
“The two sides should continue to push forward the border negotiations, abide by the principled consensus reached, jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border areas, and create positive conditions for the final settlement of the border issue,” said an MFA statement in Chinese published on the ministry’s website. “Bhutan firmly adheres to the One China policy and is committed to deepening exchanges and cooperation with China. It is willing to maintain communication with China on bilateral relations and border issues,” the statement said, quoting Bhutanese officials.
There was no response from India’s external affairs ministry, but an official who tracks developments in the matter said: “We don’t comment on other country’s bilateral engagements. And our views on One Road One Belt initiative is well known...”
Strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellany said: “The timing of Chinese vice foreign minister’s surprise visit 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... If Bhutan lets China open an embassy, it will represent a watershed moment in New Delhi-Thimphu relations.”