India-friendly Bhutan walks tightrope as it seeks to end border row with ‘aggressive China’

Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay’s recent visit to India, taking place amid ongoing border negotiations with China, underscores the kingdom’s careful diplomatic strategy aimed at strengthening its ties with New Delhi without provoking Beijing, analysts have said.

Bhutan and China have been engaged in long-running talks to resolve their border dispute, a matter of strategic interest to India given its implications for regional security.

According to Aditya Gowdara Shivamurthy, an associate fellow with Observer Research Foundation’s Strategic Studies Programme, Bhutan was currently at a “crossroads”.

“On one hand, Bhutan is trying to demarcate its borders with its aggressive northern neighbour China,” Shivamurthy said. “On the other hand, it is facing an economic crisis and mass migration, and needs India’s support and collaboration more than any other time in the past.”

India has two significant tri-junction points involving Bhutan and China. One is in the west, which includes Doklam, and the other is in the east, marking the eastern terminus of the McMahon Line that Delhi uses to define the Sino-Indian border.

China’s increasing presence and influence in Bhutan could pose a threat to India’s security interests.

India and China had a military stand-off at Doklam in 2017, when the Indian Army intervened to halt the construction of a road by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the contested area.

Bhutan and China also have competing claims over the area, with the former asserting that Doklam is part of its territory and Beijing claiming it as part of its Donglang region. The stand-off lasted for some two months and ended in August 2017 after diplomatic talks between the three countries. China stopped road