Bhutan India friendship is forever
The King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who is on a 3-day state visit to India, was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. The Bhutan King is in India at the invitation of President Droupadi Murmu. He will be received by President Murmu later on Tuesday.
The king is being accompanied by Bhutan’s Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji and other senior officials.
The meeting between the two leaders will take stock of progress in bilateral relations. On Monday, Bhutan King was welcomed by the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who later paid him a visit in the evening. Jaishankar stated that he “truly appreciates” the Bhutan King’s goal of advancing the special relationship with India.
Earlier in the day, Bhutan King attended paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. He also signed the visitors’ book at Rajghat. He also met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
King Wangchuck’s visit is in keeping with the long-standing tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two nations, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
The MEA noted, “India and Bhutan enjoy unique ties of friendship and cooperation, which are characterized by understanding and mutual trust.” The external affairs minister said that the Bhutan King’s visit will give a chance to both nations to review bilateral cooperation and to further advance the close bilateral partnership, including economic and development cooperation.
The unique relationship between India and Bhutan has been preserved by a custom of frequent high-level exchanges between the two nations such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2019 and Jaishankar’s visits in 2019 and April 2022.
Moreover, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra visited Bhutan in January this year. Earlier in February 2023, a Parliamentary delegation from Bhutan led by Wangchuk Namgyel, Speaker of the National Assembly of Bhutan called on President Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Earlier reacting to the Bhutanese Prime Minister’s remarks on the Tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan that Bhutan also has an “equal” say on the issue, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said that India and Bhutan remain in close touch relating to both nations’ shared interests, including security interest.
On asking how India would react to the Bhutanese PM’s statement, Kwatra said, “I would say that India and Bhutan remain in close touch relating to our shared interest, including security interest.”
Without addressing the Bhutanese Prime Minister’s remarks directly, the foreign secretary said that the national interests of India and Bhutan, and the interests of the relationship between India and Bhutan have some main points which are shared values, trust, mutual respect and close understanding and sensitivity to each other’s interests and concerns.
“Besides the exemplary and unique relationship between India and Bhutan, we also have a time-tested framework of security cooperation. Both countries maintain a long-standing tradition of very close consultations on matters relating to their mutual interest and security also. In this context, the intertwined and indivisible nature of our security concerns is self-evident,” Kwatra added.
In the briefing, Foreign Secretary also made it clear that the “Government of India very closely follows all developments which have a bearing on our national interest and we would take all necessary measures to safeguard them as necessary.”
“I would only reiterate our earlier statements on this (Doklam) issue which very explicitly and very clearly bring out our position on the determination of the Trijunction boundary points,” he added.
He repeated his previous statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi covered the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation issues and issues of respective national interests.
With regard to the recent statements (by the Bhutanese PM), Kwatra said, “India and Bhutan remain in close touch and in close coordination relating to our shared national interests, including security interest.”
