(TibetanReview.net, Oct17’26) – Like in the case of India, Bhutan never had a boundary – or a boundary dispute – with China, until the latter illegally annexed Tibet in the 1950s following an armed invasion of the militarily defenceless country. Now the two sides are locked in an endless series of border talks, which started in 1984, amid reports of continuing incursions by China into the territory of the Himalayan kingdom with a population of just over eight hundred thousand.
China and Bhutan have agreed to build on the “positive momentum” in efforts to resolve their border dispute, reported indiatoday.in Oct 15, citing news agency PTI. The agreement came during the 16th round of their Expert Group Meeting on the boundary issue in Bhutan’s capital Thimphu.
The three-day talks were stated to have been concluded on Oct 15, co-chaired by Hou Yanqi, head of the Chinese delegation and director-general of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, and Letho T Tangbi, Bhutan’s secretary of international boundaries.
“The two sides reviewed the positive progress made in the China-Bhutan boundary negotiations in recent years and had friendly, candid and constructive discussions to take forward the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Three-Step Roadmap for Expediting the China-Bhutan Boundary Negotiations,” the countries have said in a joint statement.
They have “agreed to work together to build on the positive momentum.”
Also, China and Bhutan have held the fourth meeting of the Joint Technical Team on Delimitation and Demarcation of the China-Bhutan Boundary on the sidelines of the expert group meeting. This team deals with the mapping and marking of the border.
In this meeting, “The two sides reached positive understandings on the roadmap for the next phase,” the statement was quoted as saying.
The report said that at the previous meeting of the joint technical team in Beijing in April, the two sides discussed the alignment of the boundary in areas where there are no disputes. Both sides have regarded the discussions as progress.
The latest talks were stated to have been held in a warm and friendly atmosphere in keeping with the friendship and cooperation between China and Bhutan. The two sides have agreed to hold the next expert group meeting on a mutually convenient date.
* * *
China and Bhutan do not have diplomatic relations but remain in contact through periodic visits by officials. Beijing has resolved boundary disputes with 12 neighbouring countries. India and Bhutan are the only two countries with which China is yet to settle its border disputes, PTI has noted.
China stepped up efforts to establish full diplomatic relations with Bhutan and speed up negotiations on their border dispute in recent years. The dispute is complicated by Beijing’s claim over Bhutan’s Doklam area, which is also strategically important to India’s national security.
China’s attempt to build a road on the Doklam plateau in 2017 led to a 73-day India-China standoff and heightened tensions between the two countries. India strongly opposed the road’s construction by the Chinese military because it ran close to the narrow Siliguri Corridor, also known as the Chicken Neck, which connects the rest of India with the country’s seven northeastern states. The standoff ended after Beijing dropped its plan to build the road, the report noted.
But even as talks continued China has been laying further claims on Bhutanese territory. In 2020, it also claimed the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan at a meeting of the Global Environment Facility Council by opposing funding for the project. Bhutan lodged a formal diplomatic protest with the Chinese Embassy in India over the claim, the report noted.
Meanwhile, India and China have held 24 rounds of Special Representatives’ talks to resolve their Tibet-border dispute along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control since the first one in Oct 2003.