Delhi needs to up its game with smaller neighbours



By Harsh V Pant | Agency: DNA


The King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk, was the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi eight years after his father graced the occasion. As it turned out, however, he was not the first choice of the Indian government. New Delhi wanted the Sultan of Oman to be the chief guest but such are the mysterious ways of the great Indian bureaucracy that even a routine invitation to the head of a state was goofed up. A nation that wants to play in the big league could not even get its foreign policy machinery to follow some standard protocols of high summitry and the result was an ignominious rebuff from Muscat.

Even though this was clearly a major debacle, New Delhi quickly tried to salvage this situation by turning to its old friend in Bhutan for damage control who agreed to act as a replacement. Rest assured India’s faux pas will end up costing the nation some crucially needed goodwill both in Muscat and Thimpu. Though the Bhutanese King was received with due pomp and ceremony in New Delhi, the cavalier attitude of India towards its smaller neighbours will not go unnoticed.

Bhutan remains the only resolutely pro-India country in South Asia today. At a time when India is rapidly ceding strategic space to China in its vicinity, it should be cultivating its immediate neighbours with greater sensitivity. As it is Bhutan has signalled that it does not want to remain the only country in India’s neighbourhood without official ties with Beijing.

The Bhutanese prime minister met his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro last year in an attempt to lobby for Bhutan’s candidacy for the non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. He also reportedly raised the issue of establishing diplomatic ties between the two nations though this was later denied by Thimpu. China’s economic engagement with Bhutan is also likely to grow in the future especially as China’s infrastructure development leads to greater connectivities between the two states.

What might be most troubling for India is a boundary settlement between China and Bhutan. Besides India, Bhutan is the only county with a land border dispute with China today as the 470-km long border between the two nations remains contentious.

China’s slow encroachment into Bhutanese territory is also making Bhutan eager for an early boundary settlement. And if such a settlement allows China access to disputed areas in the Chumbi Valley, a tri-junction abutting Bhutan, Tibet and Sikkim, Indian security interests will suffer significantly as the Siliguri corridor connecting India to its northeast will come under direct Chinese threat.

In response India has indeed stepped up its own economic profile in Bhutan. India views Bhutan as a major source of hydropower in the coming years and is seeking greater access for its energy companies. India is hoping to import 10,000 MW hydropower from Bhutan by 2020 and is ramping up its economic aid to Thimpu. But the issue is larger than economic assistance and military security.

If New Delhi continues to treat its smaller neighbours as second class states who are only to be courted if the Chinese end up expanding their footprints, then sooner or later these smaller states will start treating India as a second rate power, lagging much behind China in their foreign policy priorities.

The ‘special’ relationship that New Delhi and Thimpu share will only hold water if both sides are equally interested in sustaining the relationship. Much like other smaller states in India’s neighbourhood, Bhutan would also like greater autonomy in its foreign and security policies. And with democracy taking roots in the country, India will be soon seen as a nosy external party interfering in Bhutan’s internal affairs. China will then emerge as an effective balancer against India’s overweening presence.

India cannot and should not hinder the enhancement of Sino-Bhutanese ties. Bhutan, the hermit kingdom of South Asia, is opening up to the world. Not only China but other powers too are seeking to engage Thimpu. A fully integrated Bhutan into the world community can only be a good thing for India. China’s quiet assertion in South Asia has allowed various smaller countries of South Asia to play China off against India. Most states in the region now use the China card to balance against the predominance of India.

It would indeed be a huge failure of Indian diplomacy ifBhutan too decides to follow the same path.

The writer teaches at King’s College, London