Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label India-Bhutan relations

Asia: Time for collective security

Credits- Indian Navy Another article after a long time. This time I intend to deal with a particular subject, that is need for collective security cooperation in Asia with reference to containing China.  The security situation in Asia is fluid. China is in expansion mode. China has laid claim to and has border disputes with almost all it's neighbours starting from South China Sea and East China sea all the way to India. China over the years has built up a huge industrial infrastructure that it can effectively use to bolster it's defence capability.  It all began from 2008 onwards when China gave up it's policy of being a peaceful power and started   a policy of aggressive territorial claims which set it in course for confrontation with almost all  it's neighbours. This all began in South China Sea wherein China has laid a claim to the entire region in what is called it's nine dash line. That includes all of South China Sea which is also claimed by coun

Bhutan and the Great Power Tussle ( Copy Right @ The Diplomat, Author- Brian Benedictus)

Image credits- MEA, Government of India At first glance, the Kingdom of Bhutan would not seem to be a country that would factor heavily in the calculus of regional powers. With a land mass smaller than that of the Dominican Republic and with fewer people than Fiji, this landlocked Himalayan country has nonetheless become increasingly important strategically to both New Delhi and Beijing. The reason for this interest is not untapped mineral riches or a large consumer class, but Bhutan’s geographical location. As the Kingdom has only in recent years begun to open itself up to the outside world (only  legalizing television and the internet in 1999  ), it finds itself caught up in a discreet but high stakes diplomatic battle being waged between India and China. The centerpiece of this issue is territory. Between China and Bhutan there are three territorial areas of dispute:  The Jakarlung and Pasamlung valleys   on the Bhutan-Chinese north-central border, and the Doklam plateau in