‘Reports that China-Bhutan ties worries India are nonsense’

November 21, 2014 12:26 am | Updated November 26, 2021 10:25 pm IST - THIMPHU:

Referring to visits in the past few months by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay said India-Bhutan relations had reached an “unprecedented level of cooperation and understanding.”

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu , Mr. Tobgay denied speculation that the high-level visits were tied to India’s worries over Bhutan-China relations. “There is a theory that India’s leaders are visiting Bhutan in quick succession, and Mr. Modi made Bhutan his maiden foreign visit destination because the government is concerned about Bhutan’s security. Our friendship is deep and this is a celebration of it. The rest are nonsense theories,” Mr. Tobgay said.

Boundary talks

He also dismissed reports of alleged Chinese incursions into Bhutan and also reports of India planning helipads along the Bhutan border, but said that boundary resolution talks with China were “going very well.”

In his first comments on the talks, since a Bhutanese delegation led by Foreign Minister Rinzin Dorje met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing in July this year, Mr. Tobgay said, “We have now had 22 rounds of discussions since 1984 and based on the Guiding Principles (1988) and agreement for Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity (1998). Where there have been issues, we have raised them. Right now, the discussions are going very well with the Chinese.”

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.