New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Bhutan on 17 and 18 August in an effort to revitalise the ties between the countries, which aren’t as upbeat as they used to be before the Doklam standoff with China.
The Ministry of External Affairs is yet to officially announce the dates for the PM’s visit.
Bhutan was the first foreign country PM Modi visited when he came to power in 2014. In Modi’s second term, Bhutan was the first destination for new External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who visited it in June.
Weakening ties
While India and Bhutan celebrated 50 years of diplomatic ties last year, the former has not been able to do much about the growing Chinese influence in the Himalayan kingdom, sources told ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
Relations between India and Bhutan started plummeting after India and China got embroiled in a major military standoff atop the Doklam plateau, near the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction, in 2017.
During the 72-day standoff, while Bhutan did perform a balancing act between both behemoths, Thimphu had expressed its discontent over New Delhi’s “aggressive stance” in pushing the country towards not having a dialogue with China, sources said.
Changing politics?
In October last year, Bhutan voted Lotay Tshering of the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) party to power. Not much is known about the party in India, leading to widespread concerns within the Modi government it may tilt more towards Beijing.
This was one of the main reasons why Jaishankar visited Bhutan immediately after taking over the MEA, because the country remains crucial for the success of India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.
The minister had called on King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Prime Minister Tshering on his visit.
Also read: Year and a half later, Doklam has only reinforced India’s stature in Bhutan