China’s anger has increased for some time over the China-Bhutan border dispute. Under the 1998 treaty, China had agreed that it would not build roads or interfere in any way in the disputed area. In June 2017, it broke that pact and started building roads.
Satish Kumar
The recently concluded Bhutan-China border talks are not a wonder or a new enigma. For the last three and a half decades, China has been continuously trying with Bhutan to resolve the border dispute on its footsteps. Actually, there is a reason for this eagerness of China. Last year i.e. in the middle of 2020, when the India-China border conflict reached its peak and the fear of war started deepening, during the same time China started a new dispute by claiming the Sakteng area of Bhutan as Chinese territory.
China had also started setting up villages near Doklam. Whereas China never had any residential area on the Doklam side. India is laying a network of roads from Tawang to Sakteng in Arunachal Pradesh. This will reduce the distance of Tawang and Guwahati by about 150 km. Then in Doklam, the Indian Army will also be able to challenge China from three sides. Disturbed by this, China has moved to resolve the border dispute with Bhutan.
The direct relation of Bhutan-China talks is related to Sikkim. The Indian Army is already stationed at sensitive locations in the Sikkim region. There have been no new changes. Part of Doklam is a very sensitive area. It is a part of Tibet and Chumbi Valley. For the last seven decades, China has been telling the areas of this valley as its part with the wrong arguments of history. Actually, this territory is the territory of Bhutan, which China claims from time to time.
The important Siliguri Corridor connecting the northeastern states of India with the rest of the country is just fifty kilometers below this valley. Along with India’s strategic interests, this area is also very sensitive from the point of view of internal security. Actually this valley is located on the borders of Tibet, Bhutan and India. The Nathu-La Pass and the Jailan Pass between India and China open here. Military activities are very difficult in this narrow valley. It is also called chicken neck. Doklam is the area near Sikkim which China has named Donglang. The dispute between Bhutan and China is about this area.
It is blatantly true that India-Bhutan relations have their own special significance. From 1947 to 2007 the two countries were bound by a fifty-year friendship treaty. Even after this the old system was maintained. The process of defense and foreign policy in Bhutan is decided with Indian help. It is known that there is no diplomatic relationship between China and Bhutan. China is constantly under pressure on Bhutan to build diplomatic relations. But so far he has not been successful in this.
Point to be noted is that Bhutan ties to India’s policy regarding this is already clear. The Government of India, like China’s Deng Xiaoping, has put forward only national interest, bypassing the policy of ideas. Under this, India not only beefed up its security in the coastal countries of the Himalayas, but also started taking economic relations with China to a new height. In the seventies-eighties, Deng in China freed foreign policy from ideas and brought it to the national interest. India has adopted this approach. In the last few years, India has given a new dimension to foreign policy with a new beginning in Himalayan countries such as Bhutan and Nepal.
Tibet remains the center of China’s entire strategic strategy regarding India. Mao Zedong said that Tibet serves as a dental chain for China. Keeping this in mind, China has been making its foreign and security policy. China’s anger has increased for some time over the China-Bhutan border dispute.
Under the 1998 treaty, China had agreed that it would not build roads or interfere in any way in the disputed area. In June 2017, it broke that pact and started building roads. Indian soldiers are stationed in those areas of Sikkim where Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet share the common area to keep an eye on such antics of China.
There is a fundamental change in China’s strategy regarding the border dispute with India. China has very cunningly used border disputes as a weapon of its strategic expansion. Efforts are going on between India and China since 1986 to find a solution to the border dispute.
If China calls Jammu and Kashmir a disputed area, then the reason is not only to please Pakistan, but China is trying to weaken Indian security in every way by making inroads in this area. It is noteworthy that due to the construction of the road in Aksai Chin, China had made the border dispute between 1960-62 explosive.
This route provides access to the nuclear weapons test site at Lopnor. Actually from here China can reach Gwadar port through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Not only this, China’s eyes are also on the Indian Ocean. He is expanding his nine military power in different parts of the world.
Apart from this, the construction of road and rail links between the countries settled in the foothills of the Himalayas is a trick of China. The length of the Karakoram Highway connecting Kashgar in China and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, is thirteen hundred kilometers. This highway has been named ‘Friendship Highway’. But this threatens to make the situation worse than ever since 1962.
It is known that in September 1962, the Chinese army attacked and the Indian army withdrew. The Chinese army had come as far as the eastern border. China had captured about thirteen Indian military bases on the western border. Therefore today’s controversy is also related to the memories of 1962.
China has tried to challenge India again by giving rise to a fresh dispute on the eastern and western border. China has repeatedly made such controversial statements that Arunachal Pradesh is the southern part of Tibet. Clearly his policy and interest is more to complicate them than to resolve disputes.
For a long time, China has been trying to make a border agreement with Bhutan as part of the bargain. It wants Bhutan to take Doklam in return by giving it the disputed areas of north-central part of Jakarlung and Pasalung. China wants to take Doklam because this area connects Tibet with Bhutan.
Its importance for him is also because fifty kilometers away from here is the octroi valley which connects the eastern states above India. That is why China has been engaged in this deal with Bhutan since 1996. His trick is to put pressure on India by capturing Bhutan. The Special Friendship Treaty of India and Bhutan is still alive today. But the China-Bhutan talks cannot be taken lightly.
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