China Bhutan Agreement

Certainly, border disputes between Bhutan and China have existed for decades. They began in the early 1950s, after China annexed Tibet and put China`s border in direct contact with Bhutan. Beijing then published maps claiming land in three of Bhutan`s western districts (269 square kilometers) and one of its northern districts (495 square kilometers). After many years, the two sides began negotiations in 1984 to settle their border differences. Since then, they have conducted a total of 24 diplomatic roundtables. But progress has been slow. It was not until 1998 that Beijing officially recognized Bhutan as a sovereign state and promised to respect its „territorial integrity and independence“ by signing an agreement to „maintain peace and calm in the Bhutan-China border areas.“ As a Bhutanese, I am happy. Bhutan needs closer relations with a modern country like China to develop its infrastructure with modern methods and technologies, rather than with obsolete technologies and methods, as India currently does. The fact is that Doklam is strategic for India because of the chicken neck. But over the past two years, Modi has done nothing to solve the Doklam problem. In addition, Bhutan has seen that Modi is powerless, while Modi complains about the elections and deceives Indian public opinion. So it is time for Bhutan to make up for the problem, as Modi has no strength or ability to make any pull.

Bhutan`s border with Tibet has never been officially recognized, let alone demarcated. To date, the Republic of China officially has a territorial claim over parts of Bhutan. [4] The territorial claim was maintained by the People`s Republic of China after the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China during the Chinese Civil War. With the increase in the number of troops on the Chinese side of the Sino-Bhutanese border as a result of the 17-point agreement between the Tibetan government and the central government of the PRC, Bhutan withdrew its representative from Lhasa. [4] [5] [6] The 70-day debate on the doctrine in 2017 culminated in an agreement on the withdrawal of both sides, but China continued to make itself felt in the surrounding region.