Bhutan and India to sign new pact

BBC ^ | Thursday, February 8, 2007

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The king (left) is spending five days in India

India and Bhutan are due to update their friendship treaty to give the Himalayan kingdom greater control over many areas of governance.

The revised 57-year-old agreement will allow Bhutan more freedom in areas of foreign policy and military purchases.

The Bhutanese monarch, Jigme Khesar Namgyel, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi to sign the treaty.

In 2008 Bhutan becomes a parliamentary democracy with a new constitution.

The meeting is part of a six-day visit by the Bhutanese monarch to India.

After taking over from his father, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel, 26, pledged to continue reforms and hold elections next year.

>Correspondents say the new friendship pact could see Bhutan emerge out of Delhi's shadow.

Bhutan's foreign ministry said it provided "the foundation for the continued growth of this excellent relationship in the 21st Century".

The kingdom only allowed television in 1999 and the internet the following year.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Apparently, Bhutan is something akin to a beefed up protectorate of India.

[Vaquero]

growing up in my mostly Italian neigborhood in NYC. The nuns in my Catholic school warned us about the Bhutans, but my buddys and I never listened.(they also warned the girls about becoming Bhutans...with mixed results...)

[LibLieSlayer]

Until their new King took over a few years ago (younger), Bhutan was an isolated country within a valley surrounded by huge mountains. They are very warm people with a young King who wishes to bring the good of technology to his people, without destroying their traditions.

LLS

[CarrotAndStick]

Bhutan is independent in it's internal affairs. I think they have a treaty with India with regard to external defense, in order to protect itself from the obvious threat posed by China.

Tibet has a very similar culture and people as the Bhutanese.

[Gengis Khan]

Anything wrong with that?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated.

So, their relationship with India is sort of similar to the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia with the United States: they are considered sovereign, but their defense is provided by the United States in return for American use of their territory during war? Can India use Bhutanese territory if their is war in that region?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

their there.....

[CarrotAndStick]

Though the 1949 Treaty with India is still sometimes misinterpreted to mean that India controls Bhutan's foreign affairs, Bhutan today handles all of its foreign affairs itself including the sensitive (to India) border demarcation issue with China. Bhutan has diplomatic relations with 22 countries, including the European Union, with missions in India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Kuwait. It has two UN missions, one in New York and one in Geneva. Only India and Bangladesh have residential embassies in Bhutan, while Thailand has a consulate office in Bhutan.

By a long standing treaty, Indian and Bhutanese citizens may travel to each other's countries without a passport or visa using their national identity cards instead. Bhutanese citizens may also work in India without legal restriction. Bhutan does not have formal diplomatic ties with its northern neighbour, China, although exchanges of visits at various levels between the two have significantly increased in the recent past. The first bilateral agreement between China and Bhutan was signed in 1998, and Bhutan has also set up consulates in Macau and Hong Kong. Bhutan’s border with China is largely not demarcated and thus disputed in some places. [9]

On November 13 2005, Chinese soldiers crossed into Bhutan under the pretext that environmental conditions had forced their retreat south from the Himalayas. The Bhutanese government allowed this incursion (after the fact) on humanitarian grounds. Soon after, the Chinese began building roads and bridges within Bhutanese territory. Bhutanese Foreign Minister Khandu Wangchuk took up the matter with Chinese authorities after the issue was raised in Bhutanese parliament. In response, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang of the People's Republic of China has said that the border remains in dispute (completely ignoring the original official pretext for the incursion) and that the two sides continue to work for a peaceful and cordial resolution of the dispute [10]. Neither the Bhutanese nor Indian governments (India still handles some foreign affairs for Bhutan) have reported any progress regarding this matter (peaceful, cordial or otherwise), and the Chinese continue to this day building infrastructure and increasing their military garrison within Bhutan. An Indian intelligence officer has said that a Chinese delegation in Bhutan told the Bhutanese that they were "overreacting." The Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel has said that China might use the roads to further Chinese claims along the border. [11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan#Military_and_foreign_affairs


'[]' are citations available in the link above.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated. Very informative.