{"id":33353,"date":"2023-01-15T07:54:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T02:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33353"},"modified":"2025-04-19T21:33:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:03:55","slug":"china-bhutan-border-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/china-bhutan-border-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"China &#8211; Bhutan Border Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is China &#8211; Bhutan Border Dispute?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Boundary Negotiation between Bhutan and China<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why India is keeping an eye on the developments related to China-Bhutan boundary dispute?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the challenges in solving the border dispute between China and Bhutan?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The 11<sup>th<\/sup> Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the China-Bhutan Boundary Issues was held in China&#8217;s Kunming city.<\/li>\n<li>After the meeting, both sides announced that a positive consensus has been reached to push forward the implementation of all steps of the Three Step-Roadmap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is China &#8211; Bhutan Border Dispute?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/Xwz3HyvTxd0FnVAyjq1YYJ-p7e2Q0CD30dqOp89bphdsL6sj9JL39hJIrJiB6Cnxf9ebSm7Fh7aoS6bMR3CXOrb36neuezUd5igITvuC3hY1Xiv6h9uP7Vf4lB_ObG-FvOZwkqexB0271G7bisO9zQ\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image caption: China-Bhutan Disputes Areas<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bhutan shares a 477 km-long border with China, which claims certain territories from Bhutan:\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In the north<\/strong> &#8211; Pasamlung and Jakarlung valleys; and\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Both of these places are culturally vital for Bhutan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the west<\/strong> &#8211; Doklam, Dramana, and Shakhatoe, Yak Chu and Charithang Chu, and Sinchulungpa and Langmarpo valleys.\n<ul>\n<li>These places are pasture-rich and strategically located in the Bhutan-India-China trijunction, lying <u>precariously close to India\u2019s Siliguri Corridor<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In 2020, China made new claims on Bhutan\u2019s East in the Sakteng sanctuary.\n<ul>\n<li>Surprisingly, there has been no mention of Eastern Bhutan in the previous rounds of boundary negotiations held between the two countries.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, addition of Eastern Bhutan in the list of disputed territories has baffled Bhutan.<\/li>\n<li>This eastern sector of Bhutan has a large Bhutanese population, traditional Dzongs (Medieval Fortresses) and two Bhutanese districts since time immemorial.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Boundary Negotiation between Bhutan and China<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Although, Bhutan does not have a formal diplomatic relation with China, the country began its first border negotiations with China in 1984.<\/li>\n<li>To date, both countries have held 11 expert group meetings and 24 rounds of border negotiations.<\/li>\n<li>In October 2021, Bhutan and China signed an <u>MoU on the Three-Step Roadmap for Expediting the China-Bhutan Boundary Negotiations<\/u>.\n<ul>\n<li>The three-step roadmap has still not been made public.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why India is keeping an eye on the developments related to China-Bhutan boundary dispute?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India views Chinese presence near Doklam as a major security concern close to the strategic Siliguri corridor.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>China has also staked claim to a wildlife sanctuary in Bhutan near the border with Arunachal.<\/li>\n<li>This assumes significance as, in December 2022, Indian and Chinese army troops clashed along the LAC in the Tawang Sector of Arunachal Pradesh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the challenges in solving the border dispute between China and Bhutan?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bhutan-China border dispute is not a bilateral issue<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The first challenge is to see if China would be keen on discussing the trijunction areas with India.<\/li>\n<li>For this, China will to shun its decades-old policy of treating the Bhutan-China border dispute as a bilateral issue and involve India as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Increasing Chinese expansion in the Western disputed regions<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>India has briefed and sensitised Bhutan of China\u2019s increasing inroads on multiple occasions.<\/li>\n<li>Bhutan lacks the material capability and presence to avert these continuing intrusions.<\/li>\n<li>Despite this, it stays reluctant to seek more Indian assistance, fearing more Chinese assertiveness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>China is keen on establishing diplomatic relations with Bhutan<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>China\u2019s solution to border disputes has often been inclusive of establishing diplomatic relations with Bhutan.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Such demands from Beijing will only intensify as its tensions with the US and India increase.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Which countries share boundary with Bhutan?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Bhutan shares its borders with only two countries i.e. India and China. Bhutan, being a landlocked country does not maintain any maritime boundaries.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Which Indian States share boundary with Bhutan?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>Bhutan shares borders with the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh in its east, Sikkim in the west and Assam and West Bengal in the south.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/china-bhutan-agree-to-move-forward-on-roadmap-for-their-boundary-talks-8382300\/#:~:text=Fifteen%20months%20after%20they%20signed,all%20steps%E2%80%9D%20of%20the%20roadmap.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>China, Bhutan agree to move forward on roadmap for their boundary talks<\/u><\/a>\u00a0 <strong>|<\/strong>\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orfonline.org\/expert-speak\/bhutans-border-conundrum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>ORF<\/u><\/a>\u00a0 <strong>|<\/strong>\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2021\/05\/07\/china-bhutan-border-villages-security-forces\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Foreign Policy<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bhutan shares a 477 km-long border with China, which claims certain territories from Bhutan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}