What to expect from Bhutan PM Tshering Tobgay's 5-day visit to India

Tshering Tobgay, the prime minister of Bhutan, will go to India for the first time since taking up the position in January. He will be there for five days starting on Thursday.

Tobgay’s visit to India from March 14 to 18 will be announced by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which also stated that he will meet with President Droupadi Murmu and have extensive discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is also expected to visit Mumbai.

“The visit of the prime minister of Bhutan will provide an opportunity to the two sides to review the progress in our unique partnership and to discuss ways and means to expand the enduring ties of friendship and cooperation between India and Bhutan,” the MEA said in a statement.

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A high-level team led by the ministers of industry and business, energy, and international and external trade for Bhutan will accompany Tobgay.

“India and Bhutan enjoy exemplary ties of friendship and cooperation, based on trust, goodwill and mutual understanding at all levels,” the MEA said.

“During the visit, the prime minister of Bhutan will call on President Droupadi Murmu and hold bilateral talks with the prime minister of India,” it said.

The prime minister of Bhutan will have a meeting with receive a call from minister of external affairs S Jaishankar. In January, the first high-level visit from New Delhi to Bhutan following the formation of the new government under Tobgay was made by Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, who spent three days in the country.

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Tobgay’s visit to India occurred in the context of China and Bhutan seeking a swift settlement to their long-running border dispute, which may have an impact on India’s security interests.

Five months ago, Tandi Dorji, the former foreign minister of Bhutan, met in Beijing with Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China.

According to a Chinese readout on the meeting, Bhutan is prepared to cooperate with China in order to expedite the political process of establishing diplomatic relations and to uphold the one-China principle.

Given the potential impact on New Delhi’s security interests, particularly in the Doklam triangular region, New Delhi has been closely monitoring the negotiations between China and Bhutan regarding their boundary dispute.

China and Bhutan decided to move quickly to implement a “three-step roadmap to resolve their festering boundary dispute” at the same time in August of last year.

Bhutan and China signed the “three-step roadmap” agreement in October 2021 in an effort to speed up talks to settle their boundary issue.

The agreement was signed four years after China attempted to build a road across territory that Bhutan claimed was its own, resulting in a 73-day standoff between the Chinese and Indian forces at the Doklam tripoint.

There were even concerns about a wider confrontation between the two neighbors following the 2017 standoff between China and India on the Doklam plateau. India backed Bhutan’s claim to the territory, which it had claimed.