However, Bhutan declined the offer, purportedly under pressure from India, concerned about China’s proximity to the Siliguri corridor. In 1997, China proposed a ‘package deal’ wherein they would relinquish claims on central Bhutanese areas in exchange for western territory, including Doklam. Since then, there have been more than 24 rounds of border talks and 11 rounds of meetings at the expert level. The dispute was initially part of the India-China border negotiations, but direct talks between China and Bhutan commenced in 1984. We are waiting to see how they will settle their differences,” he added.Ĭhina claims approximately 764 square km in the northwest and central areas of the Himalayan kingdom. India and China have problems all along their border. We can discuss this as soon as the other two parties are ready. These talks on the tri-junction can only start once India and China have “settled” their differences along their borders. There is no big or small country all are three equal countries, each counting for one-third,” said Tshering It is not up to Bhutan alone to fix the problem. “Doklam is a junction point between India, China and Bhutan. In addition, Tshering mentioned that Thimphu is monitoring the progress of India and China’s efforts to resolve their boundary disputes, as he then hoped to take forward the matter concerning the Doklam trijunction. In January this year, a Bhutanese delegation visited Kunming to participate in the 11 th expert group meeting on the China-Bhutan boundary issues. After one or two more meetings, we will probably be able to draw a line,” the Bhutanese PM told the Belgian paper. “Last month, a Bhutanese delegation visited China, and we are now awaiting the arrival of a Chinese technical team in Bhutan. Tshering said that while Bhutan did not have “major border problems” with China, “certain territories are not yet demarcated”. This is an international border, and we know exactly what belongs to us,” he said, as per a machine translation. We said it categorically, there is no intrusion as mentioned in the media. We don’t make a big deal of it because it’s not in Bhutan. “There is much information circulating in the media about Chinese installations in Bhutan. In that interview, he denied that China had built facilities inside Bhutanese territory. New Delhi: The Bhutanese prime minister Lotay Tshering has stated that negotiations on the tri-junction issue must be done with India’s involvement, even as he expressed that Bhutan will be able to demarcate some of its boundaries with China in a “meeting or two”.ĭuring a visit to Belgium, he spoke with a Belgian newspaper La Libre about border negotiations with China in an interview published on March 25.
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