Here’s an excerpt from the podcast:
Teresa Tang:
One of the things you asked (the Prime Minister of Bhutan) was how Bhutan navigates its relationship between its two massive neighbours, China and India. What stood out to you about what he said?
Saksith Saiyasombut:
This was a topic that wasn’t the easiest to approach. I think everybody that we talked to about their big neighbours, you could definitely tell that they were very careful and very guarded in their answers, because the narrative is always that it’s a small country nestled between giants, right?
So that’s why I think they were treading a very careful line, not to sway one way or the other. To put it into context, Bhutan, diplomatically speaking, doesn’t have the biggest leverage. It has diplomatic relationships with only a few dozen countries in the world. There are only a handful of countries that have embassies in Bhutan as well, but India is the oldest friend. They have the most long-standing diplomatic relationship going back many, many decades. In many ways, it’s being seen that India is somewhat like the big brother of Bhutan, because they are the biggest economic trading partner. In the beginning of the diplomatic relationships, India was quote unquote, “guiding Bhutan in its foreign policy”.
But then compare that to the north, to China. There are no official diplomatic relations whatsoever. However, there have been disagreements and disputes about border demarcation between Bhutan and China and India as well, and especially in that triangle in the west of the country, where we had this Doklam standoff in 2017 where you had Chinese soldiers and Indian soldiers facing each other for two months. It was resolved relatively peacefully, but there are still border talks between China and Bhutan. They have been ongoing, and they still keep continuing. So this is also what makes India a little bit nervous about whether or not China is encroaching onto Bhutan one way or the other. But enough from me, let’s hear about what the Prime Minister had to say, what he’s thinking about Bhutan’s place in the world:
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay:
Bhutan is a small, landlocked country sandwiched between giants all around us, not just India and China. Bangladesh and Nepal, hugely populated countries, densely populated countries, and we, if anything, probably are underpopulated. We have a very small population. So we have our own part, and we navigate our own path.
Saksith:
It’s kind of interesting when you think about it – what hasn’t been said there, what they didn’t tell us. I think that’s the more important thing. And this is something that is an ongoing development that you are seeing with Bhutan between India and China. Having said that, this Prime Minister definitely has a very close relationship to Modi.
